Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued on how dividends from NHS LIFT Companies should be spent.

The identification and distribution of dividends is a matter for each National Health Service Local Improvement Finance Trust Company and is set out in the Shareholder Agreement and/or Dividend Policy which is agreed from time to time by the Directors of each Company. Payment of Dividends is subject to the performance of the companies and their obligations to their debt funders.

Community Health Partnerships (CHP) is 100% owned by the Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care. CHP manages the public investments in LIFT Companies and receives all dividends payable in respect of its shareholding of up to 40%. CHP’s board, on which the Secretary of State is represented by a Shareholder Director, is responsible for determining how this investment income is to be spent and no dividends have been paid to date to the Secretary of State.

All income from dividends and investments due to CHP in the 49 NHS LIFT Companies is currently reinvested in the NHS whether through:

- meeting the costs of managing those investments;

- part funding the running of the company and the direct costs of managing the LIFT portfolio of assets thus reducing charges to tenants; and

- supporting Departmental initiatives to benefit the wider NHS such as the Strategic Estates Planning service.