Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the costs were of the privatisation process of NHS Professionals.

The Department spent approximately £2.8 million on external advisers’ costs during the sale process for NHS Professionals until the decision was announced on 7 September that NHS Professionals will remain wholly in public ownership. The Government concluded that none of the offers received for NHS Professionals reflected the Company’s growing potential and improved performance.

These costs will be recovered by taking a divided payment from NHS Professionals, so this will not impact on delivering frontline National Health Service services. It is normal practice for limited companies such as NHS Professionals to make dividend payments from their distributable profits to their shareholder, in this case the Department. Sufficient cash will be retained in the company though to ensure its operations and any necessary investment can be properly funded.