CCGs were required to complete a risk assessment of their configuration by the end of 2011 as the first step towards authorisation.

Dame Barbara Hakin said that most CCGs have been graded green on all of the risk assessment criteria.

She said: ‘If you look at the risk assessment across the country you will see a sea of green. The vast majority of CCGs are green on all points. We do have some ambers and reds and we will be working with them.

‘The feeling that there will be lots of organisations that are not ready or not coming forward is now looking less and less likely.’

Dame Barbara also confirmed that CCGs will have need to have a definable boundary with no outliers in order to be authorised.

She said: ‘I know this will be disappointing to some CCGs who want to work with like minds. But the key to this is patients rather than practices and clinicians.’

Meanwhile, Dame Barbara hinted that the DH may give an indication of an approximate minimum population size CCGs will have to cover.

But she said that the DH would not stipulate a precise population size CCGs have to cover.

Instead the DH could suggest a population range that CCGs should exceed to ensure they ‘feel comfortable they would be able to fulfil their statutory duties’, she said.