Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

DHSC Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22

Status: Closed Opened: 18 Jan 2023 Closed: 24 Sep 2023 2 recommendations 31 conclusions 1 report

The Committee will question senior officials at the Department for Health and Social Care about its overall spending and priorities in 2021 to 2022, the second year of the pandemic in the UK. The Committee has previously looked at issues including: - the Government response to the pandemic, particularly the issues in procurement of test …

Reports

1 report

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Sixty-Second Report - Department of Health and Social Care …	HC 997	5 Jul 2023	33	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items

8 Conclusion Sixty-Second Report - Department of Hea…

Department incurred £3.5 billion in impairments for unused COVID-19 vaccines and medicines.

As well as the significant volumes of PPE it purchased, and is now disposing of, the Department entered into contracts for both COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 medicines which commit it to procure future stock. It recognised impairments on these contracts in 2021–22 of £1.7 billion for COVID-19 vaccines and £1.8 …

HM Treasury

10 Conclusion Sixty-Second Report - Department of Hea… Not Addressed

UK Health Security Agency established in 2021, consolidating key public health protection functions.

On 18 August 2020, the Department announced a reorganisation of public health in England. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was subsequently established as an Executive Agency of the Department on 1 April 2021 with its Chair and Chief Executive appointed on the same day. It became fully operational on …

Government response. The government's response outlines UKHSA's governance improvements, but this conclusion was a factual observation about the agency's establishment, not a recommendation requiring action.

HM Treasury

11 Conclusion Sixty-Second Report - Department of Hea… Not Addressed

Establishment of UKHSA was a complex and urgent task driven by pandemic imperatives.

The Department told us that there was an operational imperative to establish UKHSA before the winter of 2021–22, which was driven by the state of the pandemic and the need to create a single source of advice for Ministers and a single operational response.26 The establishment of UKHSA was a …

Government response. The government's response details governance improvements at UKHSA but does not directly engage with the conclusion's observations regarding the operational imperative for its rapid establishment or the inherent complexity of the task.

HM Treasury

12 Conclusion Sixty-Second Report - Department of Hea… Not Addressed

UKHSA's complexity compounded by changing remit and significant workforce reduction post-pandemic strategy.

The complexity was compounded by the changing remit for UKHSA and by policy decisions which had significant implications for UKHSA’s size and structure. For example, in March 2022 with the implementation of the ‘living with covid’ strategy, UKHSA began a restructure which resulted in it decreasing its workforce from 18,000 …

Government response. The government's response focuses on UKHSA's corporate governance and oversight, rather than directly addressing the observed complexities stemming from its changing remit and restructuring outlined in this conclusion.

HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session

Date	Witnesses
20 Mar 2023	Andy Brittain · Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Ian Peters · UK Health Security Agency, Professor Dame Jenny Harries · UK Health Security Agency, Shona Dunn · Home Office, Sir Chris Wormald · Department of Health and Social Care	View ↗

Correspondence

2 letters

Date	Direction	Title
28 Mar 2023	—	Correspondence from Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary of the Department of…
7 Feb 2023	—	Correspondence from Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary, Department of Healt…