PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies (2 October 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many proposals to form new NHS wholly owned subsidiary companies have been assessed through the Addendum to the transactions guidance for NHS Trusts forming or changing a subsidiary dated November 2018.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

Ministers do not have a role in approving Wholly Owned Subsidiary companies created by NHS foundation trusts, with this role delegated by powers to NHS England and NHS Improvement.

At the end of August 2019, NHS England and NHS Improvement had been notified of 16 business cases as part of their Wholly Owned Subsidiary review process. A number of these are still ‘live’ cases where information is still being received as part of the review. All cases have been reviewed to consider their relative risks, according to the requirements of the Addendum to the transactions guidance.

When NHS England and NHS Improvement published their guidance for trusts forming or changing a subsidiary, in November 2018, it committed to a review of the proposals for implementing a subsidiary a year later. Work is ongoing to collect information on the impact of the proposals; it is expected that the outcome of this work this will be published early in 2020.

Answered by:
Edward Argar (Conservative)
8 October 2019