To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of people in receipt of Direct Payments in each of the last ten years, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.

A Direct Payment is payment made to an individual as an alternative to services which would have been provided, or purchased by a Health and Social Care Trust. A Direct Payment must be used to purchase services, in accordance with assessed need and which the Trust has agreed to fund.

The use of Direct Payments runs throughout a number of Programmes of Care within the area of Health and Social Care.

Details of Direct Payments paid out by Trusts are published by the DoH, these figures can be accessed by following the enclosed link

Quarterly direct payments statistics June 2024 | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk)