Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2014 to Question 218445, how much the NHS spent on commissioning private providers in each of the last five years.

The information requested is provided in the table below:

Independent providers, both for-profit and not-for-profit, have long through successive governments been providing care to National Health Service patients. Under this Government competition between providers of NHS services has been pursued on the basis of competition for quality through a system of fixed national tariffs. Our position on who should provide services is taken to ensure patients receive the best possible services and outcomes. These decisions are taken by the local clinicians, who are best placed to act for the benefit of their patients.