Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many appeals for fundraising by the public have been supported by the NHS for (a) NHS equipment and (b) NHS services in the last three years.

This information is not collected centrally. The Department does not set criteria to assess the merits of launching such appeals and no assessment has been made of their effect on geographical health inequalities. We are aware that many people are keen to support the National Health Service through charitable activity, often after they or their family have received good care from their local NHS.

NHS charities are independent of NHS trusts, their funds and assets are not Exchequer funds, and are held for the beneficiaries of the charity only. Funds donated to the NHS must therefore be managed separately from an NHS body’s own monies.