Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the health entitlements within the NHS are of British national missionaries and aid workers who are not ordinarily resident in, but retain housing and other links to, the UK.

Missionaries and aid workers temporarily based outside the United Kingdom, who retain housing and other links to the UK may, depending on all their circumstances, still be considered ordinarily resident in the UK. They would therefore retain full entitlement to free National Health Service hospital treatment.

For those who are not ordinarily resident in the UK at the time NHS hospital treatment is provided to them, they will be charged for that treatment under the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2011, as amended, unless an exemption from charge category applies. There are currently exemptions for people acting as missionaries overseas for an organisation principally based in the UK; those working in posts overseas that are funded in part by the UK Government in accordance with arrangements with the Government of some other country and former UK residents of 10 years or more who are now employed overseas provided the period of employment has lasted no more than five years.