Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what mechanisms are in place to prevent private sector providers making excess profits in contracts for NHS-funded services.

The Government has always been committed to minimising scope for some providers to earn excess profits by treating less complex and cheaper cases: so-called “cherry picking”.

Prices payable to providers, under the National Tariff, would take account of the patients they treat and the range of services they offer to ensure a fair level of pay for providers. As a result, providers undertaking only the more simple interventions would be paid a suitably lower price.