Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 12 December 2018 on the review of amendments made to the NHS Overseas Visitor Charging Regulations in 2017, HLWS1142, if he will publish the evidence collected for that review.

The Department has no plans to produce and publish a formal review document or the evidence collected as part of it. In undertaking the review, the Department called for evidence from interested stakeholders which included several confidential individual case studies from organisations who have not permitted the Department to share these within the public domain. A summary of the findings will be shared with contributors to the review and we will continue to keep the impact of the regulations under close review, working closely with our stakeholders.

National guidance is clear that National Health Service maternity treatment should always be considered as immediately necessary and provided to all patients regardless of whether or not they are entitled to receive it free of charge or there are doubts about whether they could pay if subsequently found to be chargeable under the regulations.