Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Acknowledged
We asked NHSE about whether, in its view, this would provide the NHS with sufficient...
Conclusion
We asked NHSE about whether, in its view, this would provide the NHS with sufficient funding, given its previous comments about the scale of the negative impact inflation had had on its budgets.26 The Chief Executive told us that it should be enough to deliver key priorities, including elective and cancer recovery. NHSE also listed the continuing risks to recovery, many of which could reduce the value of this latest spending settlement: these include, in particular, risks relating to industrial action, and any increases in the assumed level of inflation.27 The National Audit Office report notes that NHSE has so far opted not to produce a detailed costed version of its recovery plan to show how it expects all of the £14 billion to be spent.28
Government Response Summary
The government announced an additional £3.3billion for each of 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support the NHS in England. NHS England will write to the Committee before summer recess to set out further detail on how funding available for elective recovery will be spent, together with details of its evaluation plans and initiatives to improve productivity.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
3.2 The government, as part of the Autumn Statement 2022, announced an additional £3.3billion for each of 2023-24 and 2024-25 to support the NHS in England. This additional funding will help the NHS to focus on delivery of its public commitments on Elective Recovery, following a challenging set of delivery conditions and higher-than-expected levels of inflation. 3.3 More broadly, at the 2021 Spending Review, £14 billion was made available to the NHS to support Elective Recovery. £8 billion of the £14 billion funding for elective recovery is revenue, allocated to local systems that develop plans for delivering local priorities that will support the NHS to meet the commitments made in the delivery plan, using NHSE issued operational planning guidance. The remaining £6 billion is capital to support longer-term investment in the NHS that will support productivity improvements and increase capacity. NHS England will write to the Committee before summer recess to set out further detail on how funding available for elective recovery will be spent, together with details of its evaluation plans and initiatives to improve productivity.