Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was claimed back by each hospital trust for healthcare of foreign nationals in the UK in 2016.

The Department on behalf of the United Kingdom Government reimburses other European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland for the cost of providing treatment to people we are responsible for under European Union law, irrespective of nationality. In the same way, other EEA countries and Switzerland reimburse the UK for the cost of the National Health Service providing treatment to people they are responsible for under European Union law, including UK nationals insured in another EEA country or Switzerland.

The requested data regarding individual trusts is not held centrally.

Due to the complexities associated with collecting and aggregating information on costs and treatment, claims for EEA medical costs are typically submitted by EEA member states (including the UK) up to three, and sometimes more, years in arrears. Therefore, claims for any 12 month period do not necessarily reflect treatment provided in that period.

The attached table provides information about how much was paid to the UK nearest to the pound, for NHS provided treatments for 2015-16, the latest year available, broken down by country of destination.