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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the central recovery unit recovered from NHS trust accident and emergency hospitals in respect of road traffic accidents in (a) 1998-99 and (b) 1999-2000. [131882] Mr. Hutton: In 1998-99, National Health Service trusts had responsibility for collecting charges for hospital treatment following road traffic accidents under the provisions of sections 157 and 158 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. NHS trusts in England collected a total of £19.6 million in that year. The system changed with the introduction of the Road Traffic (NHS Charges) Act 1999 which came into effect on 5 April 1999 and there is now a new centralised recovery system which is undertaken by the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU). The CRU recovered £26.6 million for NHS trusts in England in 1999-2000. However this sum does not represent total income to the NHS in that year. This is because income would have been received directly by trusts in the first part of the year as a carry-over from the old arrangements. We are unable to calculate the amounts carried over from the old system as this information is not collected centrally. The total amount collected for the first half of 2000-01 in England is £30.3 million.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

355 c120W; 131882

Session

1999-00

Question not reached

Yes

Subjects

Accidents Fees and charges NHS Recovery of costs Road traffic Compensation Recovery Unit

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk