Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

DHSC Annual Report & Accounts 2022-23

Status: Closed Opened: 10 Jan 2024 Closed: 29 May 2024 4 recommendations 27 conclusions 1 report

In 2023, the Committee reported that the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC) had overpaid and overordered £14.9 billion of inventory, which included PPE (£9.9 billion), COVID-19 medicines (£2.6 billion) and COVID-19 vaccines (£1.9 billion). Vast quantities of unusable and unneeded PPE were in storage awaiting disposal by recycling or burning, at significant cost …

Reports

1 report

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Thirty-First Report - Department of Health and Social Care …	HC 459	10 May 2024	31	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

3 items

13 Recommendation Thirty-First Report - Department of Hea… Accepted in Part

DHSC published 2022-23 accounts six months after deadline, missing pre-summer recess target.

All Departments should aim to lay their accounts and those of their agencies by an administrative deadline of 30 June after the end of the financial year, and no later than the 15 Q 72 16 Qq 50–51 17 Q 49 18 Committee of Public Accounts, Sixty-Second Report of Session …

Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and is implementing a multi-year plan to gradually bring forward the publication of accounts, targeting a return to pre-summer recess laying for the 2026-27 financial year, acknowledging significant external challenges.

HM Treasury

19 Conclusion Thirty-First Report - Department of Hea… Accepted in Part

NHS England and Department are addressing audit timeliness, but external factors still impact progress.

We challenged NHS England and the Department on the extent they were acting on the proposals to improve audit timeliness set out in their 2022–23 governance statements. NHS England stated that it had regular update meetings with all audit firms, as well as working with the Department and cross-government groups …

Government response. The government agrees with the committee's findings and is implementing a multi-year plan to gradually improve audit timeliness, targeting a return to pre-summer recess laying for the 2026-27 financial year, while acknowledging external challenges in the local audit system.

HM Treasury

31 Conclusion Thirty-First Report - Department of Hea… Accepted in Part

NHS England faces challenges in fully recovering identified overpayments from 2022-23.

We asked NHS England whether it was pursuing recovery of the overpaid amounts identified in 2022–23. NHS England told us that it was still seeking to recover more of the overpayments, but that it did not think that it would recover all the money paid. It reported that it needed …

Government response. The government agrees to pursue recovery of overpaid amounts where legal grounds exist and work is underway, with NHS England retaining oversight of progress, targeting completion by September 2024.

HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session

Date	Witnesses
13 Mar 2024	Andy Brittain · Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Julian Kelly · NHS England, Professor Dame Jenny Harries · UK Health Security Agency, Shona Dunn · Home Office, Sir Chris Wormald KCB · Department for Health and Social Care	View ↗

Correspondence

2 letters

Date	Direction	Title
15 Apr 2024	—	Correspondence from Andy Brittain, Director General Finance, Department of Heal…
15 Apr 2024	—	Correspondence from Julian Kelly, Chief Financial Officer, NHS England, re DHSC…