Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2016 to Question 55033, if he will make an estimate of the level of outstanding fees from private patients.

We are informed by NHS Improvement that National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts do not specifically disclose the amount owed from private patients at the year end.

However trusts provide NHS Improvement with data on revenue and losses in their accounts. This data for 2015/16 suggests that 99.5% of total private patient revenue billed was collected in due course.

Any surplus generated from the treatment of private patients is reinvested by the provider for the benefit of NHS patients.