Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2020 to Question 41469, what payments the NHS has made to the private sector since the beginning of March 2020; and what the average value is of those payments.

An emergency agreement was put in place on 21 March to block book almost the entirety of the private hospital sector’s services, facilities and nearly 20,000 clinical staff for the foreseeable future to help cope with the surge of COVID-19 patients. Information about what payments the National Health Service has made to the private sector since this agreement was made or the average value of such payments is not currently available. All providers have agreed to a fully transparent approach and to provide services at cost price.