Monitor was an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health, responsible between 2004 and 2016 for ensuring healthcare provision in NHS England was financially effective.

It was announced in June 2015 that the chief executive posts at Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority were to be merged, although there would not be a complete merger of the organisations.

[14] In July 2014, Monitor was criticised by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons (PAC) for the lack of clinical expertise and frontline NHS experience amongst its staff.

[19] The board of MONITOR has a majority representation from former or seconded employees of KPMG, PWC and Deloitte while still awarding contracts to these organisations worth millions of pounds.

In August 2015 Monitor issued a letter to all Foundation Trusts telling them to fill vacancies "only where essential" and warning that current financial plans are "quite simply unaffordable" as NHS providers collectively forecast a deficit of £2bn in 2015-16.

[24] In line with the investigation report recommendation, Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, agreed to a further Independent Inquiry of the commissioning, supervisory and regulatory bodies for Foundation Trusts.

[25] In September 2014 former chief executive David Bennett admitted that the organisation had yet to identify a strategy to counter those opposed to competition because it clashed with their personal ideologies.