Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they made of the costs of closing NHS Direct at the time of the decision, and what was the actual cost of closing NHS Direct.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS Direct NHS Trust’s Final Report and Accounts, published in June 2014, set out decommissioning costs of £69.2 million for 2012/13. The Trust’s business case, submitted for approval of the transaction for its dissolution which took effect on 1 April 2014, included an estimated cost of closure of £36.3 million in 2014/15. The Final Report and Accounts showed the decommissioning costs for this year to be £17.6 million.