The former chair of England’s healthcare watchdog has said the government is too sensitive to criticism.

Baroness Young of Old Scone, who served as the first chair of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), told the Times newspaper that ministers and the Department of Health wanted a regulator who was “more emollient”.

Young stepped down after just five months leading the commission, which was set up last year to act as a 'super-regulator' of both the health and social care sectors.

“It became clear to me, as we went through the whole process, that government knew it should want an independent regulator but in practice didn’t feel very comfortable about that,” Young said in an interview. “Rugged independence is not what they are looking for; they are looking for something much more emollient and collaborative.”

She added that the CQC was one of the few regulators which had responsbility for "saying directly that the service being run by a minister is unsatisfactory, and ministers find that quite difficult".