Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment she has made of the level of consultancy services costs within Barts Health NHS Trust over the last 12 months in comparison to other NHS health trusts in the country.

No specific assessment has been made. National Health Service trusts are currently permitted to award contracts according to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and would seek further approval from NHS England if financial approval thresholds were exceeded.

The Cabinet Office are deploying spending controls to the NHS for individual commercial transactions of more than £10 million which are designed to assure and approve business cases.