Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level of value for money of current arrangements with private providers delivering NHS diagnostic services.

Achieving value for money is primarily the responsibility of integrated care boards, who decide how best to spend fixed budgets to achieve outcomes for their local populations.

In most cases, contracts between integrated care boards and local providers will have to comply with the NHS Payment Scheme, a set of prices and rules used by providers of National Health Service care and commissioners to deliver the most efficient, cost-effective care to patients. These unit prices apply to both independent sector and NHS providers.