The Department of Health announced its new National Clinical Assessment Authority to provide a rapid response to concerns about negligent, incompetent or criminal doctors.

The authority's chairman is Jane Wesson, chairman of Harrogate NHS Trust since 1993, and the chief officer and medical director, Dr Alison Scotland, director of medical education and research at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The authority starts work on April 1.

Conservative MP, David Davis, chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee said the authority did not go far enough and called for two watchdogs, one to monitor safety and errors and the other to regulate complaints and suspicious circumstances. The MP also called for limitations of the right of patients to sue for medical negligence to protect the NHS from increasing litigation costs.