Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value of all fines levied by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) against NHS trusts was for the financial year 2017-18; and what guidance his Department provides to (a) NHS England and (b) each CCG on how revenue raised through such fines should be used.

Information is not held centrally on the level of fines levied by clinical commissioning groups against National Health Service trusts during 2017/18.

In terms of the use by commissioners of revenue withheld from providers through financial sanctions, guidance on this is set out in NHS England’s Contract Technical Guidance, at section 40.5 onwards. This guidance sets out how commissioners may use funding they retain as a result of the application of contractual sanctions, recommending that the commissioner considers whether it is possible to invest the withheld funding in a way that will help to rectify the performance problem.