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 12 May 2020 to Question 41025, for what reason details of contracts which have been entered into by NHS England with independent providers since his directions in March 2020 have not been published on https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder; if he will take steps to ensure that NHS England maintains a dedicated website for publishing records of each contract that it and each clinical commissioning group award for the provision of health care services for the purposes of the NHS as required by the NHS (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No.2) Regulations 2013; and if he will make a statement.

National Health Service patients are benefitting from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals in the United Kingdom as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England. This has increased NHS capacity and ensured that more facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

No contracts with independent providers were entered into by NHS England providers pursuant to The Exercise of Commissioning Functions by the National Health Service Commissioning Board (Coronavirus) Directions 2020 until 15 May 2020.

As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This will allow the NHS to continue to use the extra hospital capacity acquired from the independent sector and also to maintain the Nightingale hospitals until the end of March.