I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act, which I received on 9 November 2023 for information about the following:

‘As part of the plans to reduce the elective backlog, NHS England has made a number of policy announcements to enable patients currently waiting a long time for care to choose to change provider and be treated further from home if they can be seen faster.

In order for this choice to be meaningful for all, NHS England have acknowledge that some patients (and their families if providing carer support) will need support with transport and accommodation to support patients to travel for treatment. NHS England have said that patients are able to apply for support under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme - Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) - NHS (www.nhs.uk). I understand that this scheme is administered by the NHSBSA which approves the requests which are then paid for by the various ICSs.

Under the Freedom of Information Act I would like to make a formal request for the following information:

Details of the number of requests made under the HTCS broken down by ICB (or predecessor collective CCGs) for each of the following financial years:

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2022/24 (to the end of October)

Details of the number HTCS support requests that were approved broken down by ICB (or predecessor collective CCGs) for each of the following financial years:

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2022/24 (to the end of October)

Details of how much each ICB (or predecessor collective CCGs) has spent on HTCS requests for each of the following financial years:

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2022/24 (to the end of October)

If it does not exceed the time limits for compiling the response, and the information is available, please can you confirm how many of the above requests for support under the HTCS were for patients travelling for treatment in a neighbouring ICS. Please break this response down by each of the following financial years.

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2022/24 (to the end of October)

I appreciate that ICBs have only existed as legal entities since the middle of 2022 but please provide any data that you are able to provide under this request including any data that was collected under the CCGs across the patch as the predecessor organisations.’

Response

Accommodation

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. There is no provision in HTCS for the cost of accommodation should a patient need to stay overnight.

Claims Made On-Site

Please note that some Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) Applications for refunds for travel costs under the HTCS are claimed at places of treatment, Pension Centre and Job Centre Plus offices. The NHSBSA does not receive or hold information relating to these claims.

Questions 3 and 4

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. Claims are paid by the paying authority. We do not receive information on the number of claims paid, or how much was paid out. In addition, we do not know whether patient lives in a neighbouring Integrated Care Board (ICB).

However, it is possible that each paying authority may hold some or all of the information you require. They can be contacted by locating contact details located by browsing the directories listed at the below web links:

A list of ICBs can be found at the following web link: 

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-integrated-care-board-directory/  

Questions 1 and 2

Retrospective Claims

Certain groups can retrospectively claim refunds on the cost of travel to receive NHS care in England.

Information on eligibility, and how patients can apply for a refund of travel expenses can be found at the below web link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-travel-eye-care-wigs-and-fabric-support-costs/travel-receive-nhs-treatment

The NHSBSA does hold some of the information described in your request as explained below.

The records that we do hold relate only to retrospective claims, records of which are kept for no longer than 24 months. Please note, therefore, that we do not hold information beyond that time period.

The records we do hold will show that the refund claim was sent to which ICBS/CCG. Claims were also sent to centralised processing centres which cover multiple ICBS/CCGs. The forms themselves are not retained by us but sent to the relevant paying authority for payment to be considered.

From high-level reports, we know that during 2021/22 we authorised 14,020 travel claim refunds, in 2022/23 we authorised 15,729 travel claim refunds and for 2023/24 (up to October) we authorised 9,043 travel claim refunds. This totals 38,792 records. We have set out below what tasks would need to be carried out to determine whether we hold the information, and (if held) to locate, retrieve and extract the information.

Request records dating back 24 months via an IT helpdesk request

Access each record to determine which CCG/ICB (or other paying authority) the claim was sent to.

Create totals, broken down by where the refund was sent to.

Estimating conservatively at 1 minute per record, it would take 646.5 hours to manually interrogate 38,792 records.

Therefore, I estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is not obliged to comply with your request and I will not be processing your request further. 

Unfortunately there is no subset of the requested information (for example, one year) that could be offered, which would allow us to provide you some information within the appropriate limit. We recommend writing to the paying authorities using the details outlined above to obtain the desired break down.