Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the total payments made by NHS England to private providers in each of the last five years.
Total spending by NHS Commissioners on private health providers in each of the last five years for which figures are available is shown in the following table.
NHS Commissioners' spend on non National Health Service bodies by organisation type | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
| £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million |
Independent sector providers | 6,467 | 8,067 | 8,818 | 9,007 | 8,765 |
Note: 1. The numbers above have been collected separately from audited accounts data and may include estimates.