NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies

(asked on 26th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS trusts (a) have set up a subsidiary company or (b) are in the process of setting up a subsidiary company; which such trusts have such companies; and what those companies are.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 6th March 2018

NHS Improvement has informed the Department that they ask foundation trusts, to report how many subsidiaries have been consolidated into their accounts. In returns received by NHS Improvement for the year ended 31 March 2017, foundation trusts reported 41 consolidated subsidiaries (excluding any consolidated National Health Service charitable funds).

Information on the number of NHS trusts that have set up or are in the process of setting up subsidiary companies is not collected centrally.

NHS trusts do not have an express statutory power to form or participate in ownership of a company other than for income generation purposes. NHS organisations have a duty to operate efficiently and economically and are responsible for putting in place the most effective structures they need to deliver services to their patients within available resources.

Both the Department and NHS Improvement have not provided any advice to trusts seeking to set up subsidiary companies on their right to access private funding including patient income. The Secretary of State requires that NHS providers pay a Public Dividend Capital dividend based on a charge of 3.5% of actual average relevant net assets, including subsidiaries, during the financial year as determined in the draft/unaudited accounts submitted to NHS Improvement/the Department. The Secretary of State has the power under the Health and Medicines Act 1988, as invoked by Sch. 4 Para. 20 of the NHS Act 2006 to provide loans. However, in practice no loans have been provided to subsidiary companies of trusts.

Local Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committees are consulted about service changes to their local NHS. No guidance has been issued to trusts who are seeking to set up subsidiary companies on submitting proposals to establish such companies to Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committees for examination.

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