Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing regulations requiring private healthcare providers to publish standardised pricing for diagnostic services in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the potential merits of introducing regulations requiring private healthcare providers to publish standardised pricing for diagnostic services.

In 2014, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded an investigation into the private healthcare market and published a report which concluded that the lack of sufficient publicly available performance and fee information on consultants was a feature in the provision of privately funded healthcare services by consultants, giving rise to adverse effect on competition. The report is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/533af065e5274a5660000023/Private_healthcare_main_report.pdf

The Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014 was made in response, and the CMA continues to monitor compliance to improve competition. The order is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/542c1543e5274a1314000c56/Non-Divestment_Order_amended.pdf

The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) was set up following the report to publish information about the safety, quality and costs of private healthcare.

On 10 October 2025, the CMA recognised the PHIN meeting the silver milestone on its journey toward being fully compliant with the CMA’s Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014. This recognised the PHIN engaging with the sector to facilitate compliance with the order so that 96% of consultants publish their consultation fees for self-pay patients, exceeding PHIN’s 90% target. Currently, 96% of all private procedures are carried out by consultants whose fees are on the PHIN website. The CMA’s letter recognising this milestone is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68e789cd187483de54d76690/_CMA_letter_to_PHIN_welcoming_achievement_of_silver_compliance_milestone.pdf

Where private healthcare providers are delivering services for NHS patients, this is delivered at NHS tariff prices.