Recommendation 6

NHS England does not have a coherent plan to better protect taxpayers’ money and prevent future unapproved exit packages. There remain far too many special severance payments where approval has only been sought after the payment has been made. Five such unapproved payments 7 totalling £180,868 were made by NHS trusts in 2023–24. Without approval, this expenditure has not been spent in line with Parliament’s expectations. NHS England’s plan to stop such payments occurring in future has been to remind providers of the rules in place. However, it has acknowledged that solely reminding providers is not enough to guarantee future unapproved payments will not happen. NHS England is also unable to identify any meaningful consequences for trusts that would act as a deterrent. recommendation As part of its Treasury Minute response, NHS England should set out how it will ensure that all exit packages receive the appropriate approvals in advance of payment being made, including details of consequences for non–compliance with the rules. Given the proposed scale of redundancies it should set out how its new approvals mechanism can be enforced to prevent even more unauthorised severance payments. This should include how it will ensure that this corporate knowledge and any lessons learned are not lost when it is abolished and its functions are taken on by the Department. 8 1 The operation of the Department and its reporting Introduction