Health Services: Foreign Nationals
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS (a) has received and (b) is outstanding in charges from foreign nationals in each year that data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth
For this answer, we have taken ‘foreign nationals’ to mean chargeable overseas visitors.
The Department publishes data on the income identified from chargeable overseas visitors in England in its Annual Report and Accounts. The consolidated National Health Service provider accounts published the cash payments received in-year by the NHS from overseas visitors. NHS charges can be recovered up to six years from the date of invoice, and therefore the amount recovered in a year does not necessarily mean it was identified in the same financial year. The following table shows the income identified and cash payments received in-year between 2019 to 2024:
Year | Income identified in-year | Cash payments received in-year |
2018/19 | £91,000,000 | £35,000,000 |
2019/20 | £93,000,000 | £39,000,000 |
2020/21 | £61,000,000 | £21,000,000 |
2021/22 | £67,000,000 | £25,000,000 |
2022/23 | £100,000,000 | £32,000,000 |
2023/24 | £123,000,000 | £42,000,000 |
Source: The Department’s Annual Report and Accounts and Consolidated NHS provider accounts.
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