Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 27 November (HL3070), whether each of the three NHS-approved framework operators for the provision of agency staff to the NHS is publicly owned.

NHS Improvement has approved three framework operators for the supply of agency staff within the National Health Service, these are: Crown Commercial Services, the NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership and Health Trust Europe.

We can confirm that Crown Commercial Services and the NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership are both publicly owned.

The NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership is the culmination of the collaborative working of four NHS procurement organisations; NHS Commercial Solutions, East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub, NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative, and NHS London Procurement Partnership.

We can confirm that Health Trust Europe is owned by Health Care America and is a privately owned company. In line with legal requirements they are hosted by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and are fully compliant with all legal obligations required to supply within the NHS.