Department of Health and Social Care: Private Sector
(asked on 21st November 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department spent with private sector providers of (a) diagnostic and imaging services (b) elective surgery (c) mental health services (d) community and primary care services for each year from 2015 to date.
The information is not held in the format requested, breaking down private sector spend by these exact categories. However, the annual reports and accounts for the Department provide figures for total National Health Service spending with non-NHS, including private, voluntary, local authority, and other, providers. The following table shows the total spend with non-NHS providers and the spend on private providers within that figure, for each year from 2015/16 to 2023/34:
Year | Total spend with non-NHS providers (£bn) | Of which, spend with private providers (£bn) |
2015/16 | 12.2 | 8.7 |
2016/17 | 12.7 | 9 |
2017/18 | 13 | 9 |
2018/19 | 13.7 | 9.2 |
2019/20 | 14.4 | 9.7 |
2020/21 | 18.4 | 12.1 |
2021/22 | 17 | 10.9 |
2022/23 | 16.6 | 11 |
2023/24 | 18.1 | 12.4 |
Source: the Department of Health and Social Care annual reports and accounts of activity and services for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 to 2023/24, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dhsc-annual-reports-and-accounts