Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent to which commercial insurance companies are capable of covering the risks associated with private health providers carrying out surgery on NHS contracts.

From 1 April 2013, private health provider organisations became eligible to join the NHS Litigation Authority’s (NHS LA) Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST). Currently, 68 private providers are members of the NHS LA’s CNST, as are all National Health Service trusts.

Any commercial insurance taken out by private providers for the NHS must meet the liability and indemnity requirements of the NHS standard contract. As such, no formal capability assessment has been undertaken by the Department.

In addition, regulation of the United Kingdom insurance industry is the responsibility of the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.