Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been raised from the Immigration Health Surcharge has been received by (1) the NHS, and (2) by non-NHS bodies, in each year since 2015.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) income data is published annually in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts. The income generated by the Home Office is distributed to the devolved health administrations for the purposes of health spending, under the Barnett Formula.
Please note that the IHS figure is made up of both Retained Income and Consolidated Funds. The IHS amounts for the financial years from 2015 to 2022 inclusive are as follows:
- £169,112,000 in 2015/16;
- £210,250,000 in 2016/17;
- £240,483,000 in 2017/18;
- £297,927,000 in 2018/19;
- £597,677,000 in 2019/20;
- £480,822,000 in 2020/21;
- £1,423,284,000 in 2021/22; and
- £1,706,112,000 in 2022/23.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the Immigration Health Surcharge has reduced the impact of non-British citizens using the National Health Service; and how they have made this assessment.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) raised £480.82 million in 2020/21; and £1,423 million in 2021/22. This relates to income collected by the Home Office through visa applications for the United Kingdom. The information requested on the distribution of this income specifically for the National Health Service in England, other Departments and public bodies is not held in the format requested. A proportion of net IHS income is allocated to the Department of Health and Social Care with other income sources for expenditure on health services by NHS England and other organisations, such as local authorities. However, there is no central record of the proportion of IHS income received by NHS and non-NHS organisations.
No specific assessment of the impact of the IHS on non-British citizens’ use of the NHS has been made. Those who pay the IHS have the same entitlement to NHS care as those ordinally resident in the United Kingdom, with the exception of assisted conception services.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money the Immigration Health surcharge raised in (1) 2020, and (2) 2021; and how much of that money was distributed (a) solely to the National Health Service, and (b) to other departments and public bodies.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) raised £480.82 million in 2020/21; and £1,423 million in 2021/22. This relates to income collected by the Home Office through visa applications for the United Kingdom. The information requested on the distribution of this income specifically for the National Health Service in England, other Departments and public bodies is not held in the format requested. A proportion of net IHS income is allocated to the Department of Health and Social Care with other income sources for expenditure on health services by NHS England and other organisations, such as local authorities. However, there is no central record of the proportion of IHS income received by NHS and non-NHS organisations.
No specific assessment of the impact of the IHS on non-British citizens’ use of the NHS has been made. Those who pay the IHS have the same entitlement to NHS care as those ordinally resident in the United Kingdom, with the exception of assisted conception services.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests were (1) sent to, and (2) carried out at, satellite testing locations on each day since 28 April.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) COVID-19 home testing kits, and (2) how many results from such kits, were sent out on each day since 28 April. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
We introduced home testing at the end of April to make testing more accessible to individuals. Between 28 April – 5 May over 92,000 home tests were dispatched to users. In that same time period, nearly 21,000 test samples were processed by our labs. Quite rightly, tests not within the control of the programme (home test kits and satellite test kits deliveries) are counted on dispatch. Tests that remain within the control of the programme throughout (for example, Regional Testing Sites and Mobile Testing Units) are counted when they are processed through our labs.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 tests were carried out on each day since 28 April; how many of those were retests each day; what were the reasons for retests being necessary; what assessment they have made of the impact of carrying out a retest before knowing the result of the original test on the reduction of COVID-19 cases; and what is their percentage target for the maximum number of retests from each set of daily tests.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The number of daily tests and number of people tested from 28 April to 7 May 2020 are shown in the following table.
Date | Daily number of tests | Daily number of people tested |
28 April | 52,429 | 33,455 |
29 April | 81,611 | 33,455 |
30 April | 122,347 | 73,191 |
1 May | 105,937 | 63,667 |
2 May | 76,496 | 56,397 |
3 May | 85,186 | 62,956 |
4 May | 84,806 | 69,839 |
5 May | 69,463 | 57,006 |
6 May | 86,583 | 65,092 |
7 May | 97,029 | 67,443 |
Data on the number of re-tests are not recorded. Re-testing is undertaken according to the judgement of clinicians, based on the case by case circumstances and need presented to them. They may run tests more than once on an individual, if they feel it is appropriate. Therefore, targets have not been set for re-testing.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are in the “very high risk due to a serious underlying health condition" category referred to in the leaflet enclosed with the letter from the Prime Minister updating recipients on the steps being taken to combat COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Those identified as extremely clinically vulnerable are put on the Shielded Patient List, which is drawn from multiple sources. An initial list of patients with high risk conditions has been supplemented by general practitioners (GPs) and hospital consultants adding individual patients to the list based on their clinical assessments of each individual’s needs. The list is dynamic. People are added to the list as we learn more about the virus and expand the list of high-risk conditions, or as additional patients are added at their clinician’s discretion. Letters have therefore been issued at various stages during this process. We cannot give a precise date of when letters are issued or when they should have been received, but everyone who has been identified should now have been sent a letter either centrally by the National Health Service or by their local clinician.
That number of people on the Shielded Patient List currently stands at 2.2 million people in England. If someone has not received a letter, then we would advise they contact their local GP or their hospital consultant in order to discuss this.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement in the leaflet enclosed with the letter from the Prime Minister updating recipients on the steps being taken to combat COVID-19 that “If you are at a very high risk due to a serious underlying health condition, you should have already received a letter from the NHS containing specific guidance about what to do”, between which dates was that letter to those at a very high risk despatched; what were the maximum number of days allowed, under any contractual arrangements, between date of despatch and date of delivery; to how many people that letter has been despatched; and from what source, or sources, was the list of people to whom that letter has been sent, obtained.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Those identified as extremely clinically vulnerable are put on the Shielded Patient List, which is drawn from multiple sources. An initial list of patients with high risk conditions has been supplemented by general practitioners (GPs) and hospital consultants adding individual patients to the list based on their clinical assessments of each individual’s needs. The list is dynamic. People are added to the list as we learn more about the virus and expand the list of high-risk conditions, or as additional patients are added at their clinician’s discretion. Letters have therefore been issued at various stages during this process. We cannot give a precise date of when letters are issued or when they should have been received, but everyone who has been identified should now have been sent a letter either centrally by the National Health Service or by their local clinician.
That number of people on the Shielded Patient List currently stands at 2.2 million people in England. If someone has not received a letter, then we would advise they contact their local GP or their hospital consultant in order to discuss this.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS patients have been treated in independent sector hospitals since the declaration of a Level 4 National incident on 30 January, compared with the same period last year.
Answered by Lord Bethell
It is not possible to provide the data requested.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the total cost to the taxpayer has been of NHS patients treated in independent sector hospitals, including the cost of independent sector hospitals being available for the treatment of NHS patients, since the declaration of a Level 4 National incident on 30 January, compared with the same period last year.
Answered by Lord Bethell
It is not possible to provide the data requested.