Recommendation 9

NHSE is the owner and shareholder of NHS Supply Chain, and as such, approves NHS Supply Chain’s annual business plan and funding requests. NHS Supply Chain reports its savings and other performance indicators to NHSE, but neither NHSE nor the Department validate or check the savings data. Instead, NHSE confirmed that it has relied 7 Q 23 8 Qq 19–20; C&AG’s Report, Figure 11 9 Qq 119–124 10 Q 126 11 C&AG’s Report, paras 16, 2.17 12 Q 96 10 NHS Supply Chain and efficiencies in procurement on NHS Supply Chain to make these checks, which undermines the confidence we can have in the reported savings.13 NHSE has shared with us NHS Supply Chain’s reported savings, which shows a cumulative £3.3 billion total from 2016–17 to 2022–23.14