Moran was speaking following an evidence session with the chair of the CQC, Ian Dilks, and chief executive, Sir Julian Hartley, on issues raised by the the Dash review, which identified major shortfalls in the organization.

Moran said: ‘We were shocked to hear how bad things have got at the CQC and it was incomprehensible to hear the chair of the organisation tell us that he did not have regular meetings with the secretary of state for health and social care, under the last two Governments.

‘The CQC told us that the organisation currently has a backlog of around 5,000 notifications of concerns, which include "major issues of concern" from staff and members of the public. It is not acceptable that concerns being flagged to the regulator are going months without a response.

‘We impress upon the CQC that it must work at pace to address the shortfalls identified in the Dash review. We will be closely following what work the regulator does to remediate its current state and restore its credibility.'