Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
25th Report - DHSC Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24
Published 14 May 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DHSC Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, 25th Report - DHSC Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 (HC 639), 14 May 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-fifth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 14 July 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenth-fifth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees" with each of the Committee's recommendations and gives target implementation dates ranging from "Recommendation implemented" to "to be advised".
- On the transfer of NHS England's functions, it agrees to share its plan and timetable, and says information on the size of resource functions "is likely to be confirmed in Autumn 2025".
- On the Annual Report and Accounts, it "plans to cover" the areas listed in the 2024-25 report and will update the Committee in September 2025.
- On publishing accounts before summer recess, it will write in September 2025 with detail on its multi-year plan, saying audit firms have indicated they lack capacity for pre-recess laying "in the shorter-term".
- On clinical negligence costs, it says ministers "will examine" the drivers of costs and "the potential merits of reform options", with the implementation date "to be advised".