Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the NHS healthcare travel costs assistance scheme is funded.

The National Health Service (Travel Expenses and Remission of Charges) Regulations 2003 (as amended), place a legal requirement on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts to pay the NHS travel expenses of eligible patients through the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme.

The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme is administered and run locally by NHS organisations and is funded from the overall budget allocations to each trust received from CCGs. CCGs receive their cash allocations from NHS England.