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NHS: Private Sector

Question for Department of Health

UIN 120099, tabled on 18 December 2017

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of the NHS budget has been spent (a) in the private sector and (b) on contracts awarded to the private sector since May 2010.

Answered on

21 December 2017

The table below shows National Health Service commissioner spend on non-NHS bodies including those from the private sector.

NHS Commissioners' spend on non NHS bodies by organisation type

2009/10

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16 (restated)

2016/17

£ million

£ million

£ million

£ million

£ million

£ million

£ million

£ million

Other independent sector1

3,757

4,376

4,915

5,249

Independent Service Treatment Centres2

387

381

405

420

Total spend on independent sector1,2

4,144

4,757

5,320

5,669

6,467

8,067

8,818

9,007

Voluntary sector3

554

594

597

543

510

526

545

757

Local authorities4

2,729

3,085

2,639

2,772

2,473

1,774

2,869

2,909

Devolved Administrations5

73

Total spend on all non NHS bodies1,2,3,4,5

7,427

8,436

8,556

8,984

9,450

10,367

12,232

12,746

Total NHS revenue expenditure

94,422

97,469

100,266

102,570

106,495

110,554

114,730

117,006

Spend on independent sector as a % of total NHS revenue spend

4.4%

4.9%

5.3%

5.5%

6.1%

7.3%

7.7%

7.7%

Notes:

1The numbers above have been collected separately from audited accounts data and may include estimations.

2Numbers shown in the table above have been adjusted to show the Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) impact of the spending. This adjustment specifically relates to Continuing Health Care provisions which are attributed to expenditure in accounts as provisions arise but only impact on the DEL when paid.

3NHS England has carried out further validation work on the 2015/16 numbers previously reported and restated some categorisations.

4NHS England and the Department have made changes to the categories for 2016/17. The Voluntary Sector category now includes other not for profit organisations who have social objectives for the benefit of the wider community, such as Community Interest Companies. A new category has also been included for devolved administrations.

The Department adheres to transparent Government guidelines and publishes quarterly returns on Ministerial meetings with external organisations. The data for 2011 onwards is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-overseas-travel-and-meetings

Similar information for 2010 is available here:

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/department-of-health-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-overseas-travel-and-meetings-with-external-o