Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October to Question 97626 on Hospital Beds: Private Sector, how many of the Contracts placed through the Contract Award 492193-2020 have been extended beyond the date of conclusion of the contract as stated in the Contract Award Notice.

A Contract Award Notice in respect of each of the 26 individual contracts entered into by NHS England with independent sector hospital providers was published on 16 October 2020 by the Official Journal of the European Union.

It provides an estimate of the payments to each provider until their termination from the national contract or until the contract ends on 31 December 2020. These payments are estimates based on agreed criteria as they are subject to final additional review and validation. These do not take place until after the contracts are terminated

All of the 26 contracts are in the form of the NHS Standard Contract, with certain amendments and derogations to reflect concessions being applied to National Health Service providers of the same types of services and to reflect the specifics of the agreed payment and other arrangements and the circumstances in which and for which the contracts were awarded

The contracts placed through the award do meet the requirements for commissioners to pay providers in accordance with the National Tariff. To the extent they relate to payment for services delivered they constitute a combination of local variations and local prices within the rules and principles as set out in the National Tariff.

No contracts have been extended. When the contracts were entered into their expiry dates were uncertain but they provide for termination, at NHS England’s option, on one month’s notice. A number have since been terminated through that mechanism.

The total paid up to 23 November 2020 is £1,404,512,878. This only includes those payments that have been made through the central process and does not include anything paid under local contracts through clinical commissioning groups, regions or providers.