Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 23
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)
When the previous Committee reported on this in June 2022, it warned that that the (then planned) large–scale restructuring of commissioning within the NHS could increase the risk of further unapproved payments being made.38 Given the announcements about the restructuring of NHS England and the potential for large numbers of redundancies, we asked the Department whether it planned to introduce a new mechanism to approve these. Given the potential for many more unapproved payments being made due to the scale of the redundancies the enforcement of this mechanism needs to be carefully considered. The Department told us that this had yet to be decided, but that when it had run similar schemes, HM Treasury had approved the overarching business case for the overall numbers, cost and time of the people due to leave the organisation, and then processes had been set up inside the Department and NHS England to manage it and ensure that appropriate governance was in place. It told us that it “imagine[d] that … will happen again”.39 36 Qq 52–3, 55 37 Q 55 38 Committee of Public Accounts, Sixth Report of Session 2022–23, Department of Health and Social Care 2020–21 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 253, 18 May 2022 39 Qq 53–55 18 3 Transparency and accountability for the Department’s spending Usability of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts document
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".