Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what time limit was given to stakeholders to respond to their current review of the impact of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/756).

The Department has no plans to include a public consultation as part of the review of ‘The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2017’ (the 2017 Amendments). The Department ran a consultation ‘Making a fair contribution: consultation on the extension of charging overseas visitors in and migrants for using the NHS in England’ in early 2016. This covered many of the areas included in the 2017 Amendments. The Government published its response in February 2017.

The Department initially sent a list of review questions on 22 December 2017 to several organisations with a deadline of 31 January 2018 for the submission of evidence to be returned.

The Department does fully recognise the need to ensure that sufficient time is provided for both evidence collection and analysis. The end of January deadline was chosen so that the Department could seek to identify the main impacts of the amendment regulations on vulnerable groups as early in the review process as possible. This will allow more time to further explore these impacts with stakeholders, within the timeframe of the review that has been set out.

The Department has responded to questions from stakeholders about the deadline by saying ‘we recognise that the end of January deadline may not be possible for all organisations due to the issues you have raised. As we previously stated, we are therefore willing to be flexible on this deadline, so while we would appreciate organisations submitting their responses as soon as possible, we will of course still consider the information in responses that are submitted after that.’ The Department has made it clear that evidence submitted within a timeframe that allows it to be taken into account as part of the review will be considered.

The Department has also committed to continue to work with stakeholders to monitor the effects of the charging regulations on vulnerable groups after the review process has concluded. Therefore, if new evidence concerning the impact of the impact of the 2017 Amendments is presented to the Department, after the time at which it can be considered as part of the review process, it will be considered in accordance with the Secretary of State’s ongoing duties.

The Department does not see any reason to change the position, outlined above, which has already been communicated to stakeholders.

The Department has undertaken a review of the 2017 Amendments in line with continuing public sector equalities duty, and also in response to concerns that have been raised by stakeholders. The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 were minor amendments in respect of errors identified by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. Given that there have not been recent concerns raised by stakeholders about these amendment regulations the Department does not feel it necessary to review them.