Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted
NHS England and Department fail to validate reported NHS Supply Chain savings data.
Conclusion
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
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the observation and confirms that a new value and savings methodology is being implemented across the NHS from April 2024, with NHSE reviewing its compliance and effectiveness after the first year by Summer 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2025 4.2 Implementation of the value and savings methodology from April 2024 is across the NHS including NHS Supply Chain. NHSE will review the compliance and effectiveness of this methodology after the first year. As part of the budget monitoring process, NHS organisations report on procurement savings including NHS SC. This information is shared with NHSE Commercial.