A number of trusts are taking legal advice about the potential to challenge Monitor and NHS England’s decision to withhold their commissioning for quality and innovation payments.

The move follows the pricing authorities’ decision to withdraw the payments – worth up to 2.5 per cent of contract income – from those providers that rejected the latest tariff offer and opted instead to remain on 2014-15 prices next year.

Monitor and NHS England today confirmed that 30 of the 241 NHS providers rejected the “voluntary” tariff offer. They said in a statement that since these providers “would not be contributing proportionately to the shared NHS-wide 2015-16 efficiency goals through the tariff deflator, they will instead be ineligible for discretionary payments, including CQUIN, next year”.

However, numerous senior sources have told HSJ some of the trusts that rejected the offer have sought lawyers’ advice on whether CQUIN payments can be withheld from them.

One source said: “There have been some places that have done a bit of a legal sounding, asking ‘can they really just take the CQUIN money off us?’ The indicative answer is probably not.”

However, another source said they believed the legal advice had been “conflicting”.

The pricing authorities’ original tariff proposals for 2015-16 were scuppered after they received objections from providers accounting for three-quarters of the relevant services. Under existing tariff rules this means providers should remain on 2014-15 prices until the proposals have been reviewed by the Competition and Markets Authority, or revised and consulted on again.

Neither official route could be completed in time to have new prices in place before the start of the coming financial year.

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Updated: Majority of providers opt for 'voluntary' tariff option