14 October - today Health Minister John Hutton launched the new National Quality Requirements in the Delivery of Out-of-Hours Services, which set out what is expected of providers of out-of-hours care from 1 January. PCTs will be legally obliged to commission a service which meets the Quality Requirements. Providers must report to PCTs on compliance with the requirements.

Also published today is the Government's response to the recent Health Committee on GP Out-of-Hours Services, as Command Paper 6352.

Please click on the links below to access (also available in Documents):

• Quality Requirements
• Quality Requirements Commentary
• Command paper