Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the change in annual transaction costs in the NHS as a result of implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The Department’s use of the term ‘Transaction costs’ relates to those costs paid in support of National Health Service provider transactions such as mergers, acquisitions or separations. Specifically, they are the costs of planning, preparing and undertaking the transaction itself and achieving contractual close.

The Department does not make estimates of these costs. Transaction costs are considered by the Department on a case by case basis in the context of the overall value for money of the wider transaction.