PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
NHS: Living Wage (13 September 2018)

Neither the Department nor its arm’s length bodies holds data on how many wholly-owned companies formed by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts pay staff below the Living Wage nor any bonus or other financial schemes in place for senior staff at wholly-owned subsidiaries (WOSs), but we are aware that some NHS organisations use the flexibilities available to WOSs to offer higher pay to staff than would otherwise be possible.

The decision to set up WOSs is for the relevant NHS organisations, based on whether they think establishing a WOS can help them make best use of available resources for the benefit of patients. Any benefits and/or other financial incentives paid to executive directors of WOSs would be included in their annual report and accounts.