Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what total amount of public funds was spent by his Department reimbursing countries within the European Economic Area and Switzerland for the provision of healthcare to visiting UK nationals during each of the following calendar years (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, (d) 2018, (e) 2019, (f) 2020, and (g) 2021.

The table below outlines the relevant expenditure and income from countries within the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and the net total expenditure. The requested information is not held in a calendar year format, due to the nature of the Department's accounting periods, so is provided by financial year. These figures cover the whole of the reciprocal healthcare budget, as it is not possible to disaggregate visitors from long term migrants (such as pensioners moving abroad, or long term posted workers). Expenditure and income are paid in arrears, so the amounts included in 2019/20 and 2020/21 were incurred prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The figures provided are after accounting treatment.