Recommendation 8

There is no clear plan as to how the Department will bring forward the publication date of its annual report and accounts. The Department prepared its 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts in exceptional circumstances. The Department’s 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts, and those of NHS England and the Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts, were published on 31 January 2022—the day of the statutory deadline for all Departments. However, HM Treasury expects Departments to publish their Annual Report and Accounts prior to the parliamentary summer recess in July—the ‘administrative’ deadline it sets is 30 June—and the Department should work towards achieving this target in future. At the time of our evidence session, one NHS trust—the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL)—was yet to sign and publish its own Annual Report and Accounts for both 2019–20 and 2020–21. For the second year running the Department has had to set out in its Annual Report that this NHS trust had failed to comply with the Secretary of State’s directions to prepare ‘true and fair’ accounts. Recommendation: The Department should develop a detailed and realistic plan for bringing forward the preparation and publication of its annual report and to improve timeliness of its accountability for the use of taxpayers’ money. Department of Health and Social Care 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts 9 1 The financial impact of COVID-19