Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 34
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)
In September 2024, the Department told us that its aim was to lay its accounts in Parliament at least a month earlier each year and that its target was to reach a pre–summer recess laying for the 2026–27 financial year.57 Given the issues within local authority audit, we asked NHS England whether it was working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities 52 UKHSA Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 427, 16 December 2024, page 154–155; NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, page 178; Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts 2023/24, page 48 53 NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24, HC 251, 10 October 2024, page 124; Consolidated NHS Provider Accounts 2023/24, HC 399, 26 November 2024, page 45 54 Committee of Public Accounts, Thirty–First Report of Session 2023–24, Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, paragraph 3 55 Department of Health and Social Care 2022–23 Annual Report and Accounts, HC 459, 29 April 2024, page 239 56 Qq 64–65 57 Treasury Minutes, Government Response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-sixth to the Twenty-ninth, the Thirty-first, and the Thirty-third to the Thirty-eighth reports from Session 2023–24, CP 1151, September 2024, page 16, paragraph 2.2. 22 and Local Government (MHCLG) to improve the position of local audit in future and help prevent delays. NHS England told us that it was working with MHCLG, the Department, and the NAO to make sure that future audit arrangements were sustainable for both the NHS and local authorities. The Department and NHS England told us they were closely linked to the MHCLG consultation process on reforms to the local audit market and that their views, concerns, and requirements had been taken into account. The Department emphasised, though, that moving towards pre–summer recess certification would require a sizable change in the capacity of the local audit market. NHS England told us, however, that there was no firm timeframe of w
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".