Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer of 3 December 2025 to Question 94075 on Health Services: Foreign Nationals, when he last reviewed the operation of the NHS cost-recovery regime with NHS England: and what milestones have been set to measure improvements in the effectiveness of that regime.

The Department and NHS England publish data annually on the income identified, recovered, and written off from chargeable overseas visitors in England in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts and in NHS England’s Consolidated NHS provider accounts. The information for the last three years is available at the following links:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692dc4e8345e31ab14ecf846/consolidated-nhs-provider-accounts-ara-2024-to-2025.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/693a97ef6a12691d48491de0/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-2025-print-ready.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6745b836e7cf64050b8098c4/consolidated-nhs-provider-accounts_annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024_print-ready.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/676150ef26a2d1ff18253415/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-2024-web-accessible.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b2a4fc5f8ce2000d3ae544/consolidated-provider-accounts-2022-to-2023-print.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b236c81702b10013cb1289/DHSC-Annual-report-and-accounts-2022-2023-web-accessible.pdf

National Health Service charges can be recovered up to six years from the date of invoice, and therefore the amount recovered in a year does not necessarily mean it was identified in the same financial year.

No formal review of the system of cost recovery has taken place. However, we continue to work with NHS England to ensure that the system works as effectively and fairly as possible.