The Public Accounts Committee, a cross-party group of MPs, has given their verdict on the Department of Health and Social Care’s accounts and annual report for 2023/24.
The committee stressed that, given the health system faces significant financial pressures on numerous fronts, strong financial management, decision–making, and efficiency improvements are essential for the NHS’s long–term sustainability.
Concerns were raised that the Department lacks a grip of the financial pressures it faces and therefore lacks adequate plans for key areas of spend and activity. They also stated that the Department’s annual report is late again and contains too little information on areas of interest to Parliament, including plans to move to prevention of ill health and how to harness technological advances to improve the NHS’s productivity.
The committee criticised poorly devised and poorly overseen infrastructure programmes, warning that this risks the UK’s pandemic planning operations. The development of UKHSA’s Harlow site, which is on hold due to costs ballooning from £400 million to £3.2 billion, was singled out.
Alarm was raised over the large sums being paid to lawyers in clinical negligence cases. Out of the £2.8 billion paid in 2023–24 for such claims, nearly 20% went toward legal fees—an amount the committee described as jaw-dropping and unacceptable. They called for urgent action to improve patient safety and reduce the burden of litigation.
As highlighted in a separate newsletter piece, the committee claimed they were troubled by the lack of firm plans about how the Government intends to simultaneously abolish NHS England and reduce headcount by 50%, whilst maintaining and improving patient services.
