Access to data and NHS privatisation: reducing public accountability

Recent decades, shaped by powerful neoliberal forces, have witnessed a significant encroachment on the UK state sector with privatisation advancing over many social and economic sectors. The extension of private sector involvement has implications for the effective public accountability of UK ‘public’ services. This chapter examines, through case studies drawn from the past ten or fifteen years, selected aspects of this diminished accountability. The three case studies concern the availability of data in relation to different dimensions of privatisation in the NHS: performance data in the provision of care when NHS-funded care is provided by private companies; financial and ownership details in infrastructure procurement; and technical data allowing an assessment of the character and implications of proposals in the policy process.