Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they made of the costs of closing NHS Direct at the time of the decision, and what was the actual cost of closing NHS Direct.

NHS Direct NHS Trust’s Final Report and Accounts, published in June 2014, set out decommissioning costs of £69.2 million for 2012/13. The Trust’s business case, submitted for approval of the transaction for its dissolution which took effect on 1 April 2014, included an estimated cost of closure of £36.3 million in 2014/15. The Final Report and Accounts showed the decommissioning costs for this year to be £17.6 million.