Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Written Statement of 11 October 2018 on Immigration health surcharge, HCWS995, how the figure of around £470 for the average annual cost of NHS usage by people paying the immigration health surcharge was calculated.

The Department has reviewed the cost to the National Health Service in England of treating those who pay the surcharge, and estimates that the NHS spends on average £470, per surcharge payer, per annum.

The Department looked at actual data on surcharge-payers who use the NHS and their length of stay in the United Kingdom between April 2015 and December 2017 inclusive, and estimated the NHS costs of treating the average surcharge payer.

The estimated average primary and secondary care cost across all surcharge payers including those who did not access health services was around £470 per person per annum.