Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
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)
The NHS Long Term Plan states that ill health prevention helps the public to stay healthy, as well as moderating demands on the NHS. The Department recognised in its 2023–24 Annual Report that there “is still much work to do to make a shift towards prevention in the NHS”.43 We observed that, with the exception of a very short paragraph, the Department’s 2023–24 Annual Report does not include a section on preventative work, or information on outcomes arising from this spend. We asked the Department to ensure that next year’s accounts had more importance paid to prevention, which it agreed to.44 We also commented that it was difficult to find information in its Annual Report and Accounts on how much the Department was spending on palliative and end–of–life care, or what outcomes this spend was delivering, which felt like a “huge omission”. The Department was unable to provide a figure for this spending on our session, but told us that it would “definitely change that for next year … [and] add more prominence to it”.45
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".