Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) patients seen, (b) day cases, (c) outpatient appointments, (d) diagnostic tests, (e) chemotherapy appointments and (f) elective admissions under Government-agreed contracts for private sector capacity in each month since 1 June 2020.

Total actual costs relating to the national contracts entered into by NHS England with independent sector providers for private sector capacity to address the effects of coronavirus on the provision of health services in England, will not be known until the reconciliation of the contracts in 2021.

Information on the number patients seen, day cases, outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests, chemotherapy appointments and elective admissions under National Health Service contracts for private sector capacity in each month since 1 June 2020 is not held centrally.

NHS-funded surgery in independent hospitals has substantially increased during the autumn.