Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
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)
We observed that the scale of change was bigger in NHS England than the Department, and so asked NHS England about its plans to reduce its workforce. It confirmed that it did not currently have a detailed plan to achieve that reduction. It told us it that it had implemented a recruitment freeze, which it expected to reduce headcount by 10% as staff left and were not replaced, but acknowledged that a redundancy scheme might be required to achieve the remaining 40% reduction. We noted that redundancy and reorganisation would cost money, and asked if NHS England had estimated how much money it might need to spend on any redundancy programmes to deliver the required headcount reduction. NHS England told us that it did not have a firm estimate of this, but noted 8 Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, pages 214–242 9 Qq 9, 13; NHS England, NHS England board members stepping down, 10 March 2025 10 Qq 2–4, 8 27 11 that “at best” it would assume that it would need to “pay on average the annual salary if a redundancy package is required”, although its turnover rate would mean that not everyone would be required to be made redundant.11
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".