Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the percentage change in the (a) cost and (b) number of patients receiving NHS treatment from private sector providers in each of the last 10 years.

Data on the number of National Health Service patients receiving treatment from the private sector in England is not available. NHS Commissioner spending on private providers over the last 10 years is set out in the attached table.

A figure for the percentage of patients currently receiving NHS treatment delivered by private providers is not available. However, during 2015/16 3.4% of finished admission episodes and 6.1% of outpatient attendances were delivered by a non-NHS provider. This will include a range of non-NHS providers, not just private providers, including the voluntary sector, social enterprises and local authorities.