Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 28
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’s Annual Report and Accounts and the Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts show that there were 3,877 exit packages in the NHS in 2023–24, costing a total of £98 million. We asked NHS England whether the use of exit packages had been increasing or decreasing. NHS England was unable to provide this information in our session but told us that it would confirm the precise number separately. Some 96 exit packages arose following employment tribunals or court orders against NHS England, NHS Trusts or NHS Foundation Trusts, at a cost of £1.3 million. We observed that there was no breakdown of the legal costs relating to employment tribunals and exit packages at NHS bodies within the Department’s or NHS England’s Annual Reports and Accounts. We requested that the Department provide this information to enable us to determine whether these were a good use of public funds.46 42 Q 69; Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 476, 17 December 2024, pages 38–39 43 Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 476, 17 December 2024, page 78; The NHS Long Term Plan, January 2019, page 7 44 Qq 28, 72 45 Qq 28, 72 46 Q 53; NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 251, 10 October 2024, pages 96–97; Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts 2023/24, HC 399, 26 November 2024, pages 82–83 20 Lack of timeliness of reporting
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".