Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the long-term financial sustainability of the current organisational and funding structures of the NHS.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to putting the National Health Service on a sustainable financial footing. The Government has taken the difficult decisions to protect and invest in the NHS. As announced at 2025 Budget, the Government is investing an additional £15 billion in NHS resource funding in real terms, a £29 billion cash increase, by 2028/29, compared with 2025/26. The 2025 Budget also confirmed that the Department’s capital budgets will rise to £15.2 billion by the end of the Spending Review period, 2029/30, to invest in the NHS and wider health infrastructure.

The Government’s assessment is that long-term financial sustainability requires reform alongside investment, as highlighted by Lord Darzi’s 2024 independent investigation into the NHS in England. In July 2025 the Government set out our plans for reform in the 10-Year Health Plan to ensure that the NHS has long-term sustainability by: shifting from hospital to community care through neighbourhood health to deliver care that is more cost-effective; shifting from analogue to digital with up to £10 billion of investment in NHS technology and transformation to boost productivity; and shifting from sickness to prevention to reduce demand on the health service.

The Government also announced in March 2025 that it will transform the centre of the health and care system, including through abolishing NHS England, following passage of legislation, subject to the will of Parliament. Along with renewing the role of integrated care boards as strategic commissioners, these reforms will cut bureaucracy and save more than £1 billion a year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential financial and health benefits of introducing a universal compulsory social insurance model for healthcare in the United Kingdom.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government strongly believes in the founding principles of the National Health Service, as a publicly funded service that is universal, and free at the point of use. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to seeing this model thrive in the modern age. The plan focuses on delivering what matters to patients and taxpayers by transforming the model of care, rather than the model of funding, including through three shifts of moving from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital.

The Government has therefore not undertaken an assessment of introducing a universal compulsory social insurance model for healthcare in the United Kingdom, nor does it have any plans to move away from a tax-funded NHS.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they plan to give, if any, to the introduction of a social insurance model for healthcare similar to that in the Netherlands.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government strongly believes in the founding principles of the National Health Service, as a publicly funded service that is universal, and free at the point of use. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to seeing this model thrive in the modern age. The plan focuses on delivering what matters to patients and taxpayers by transforming the model of care, rather than the model of funding, including through three shifts of moving from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention, and from analogue to digital.

The Government has therefore not undertaken an assessment of introducing a universal compulsory social insurance model for healthcare in the United Kingdom, nor does it have any plans to move away from a tax-funded NHS.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce (1) the number of NHS strikes, and (2) the impact of NHS strikes on patients.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We will work constructively with all unions to improve working conditions for staff working in the National Health Service, avoid strike action, and build an NHS fit for the future.

On 22 March, a comprehensive offer developed with the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctor Committee’s (BMA RDC) leadership was made by the Government to the wider BMA RDC which addressed their concerns about their pay, their career progression, and their working lives. It is enormously disappointing for NHS patients and staff that they rejected this offer and called for further strike action. However, there is still a deal on the table, and our door is open to the BMA RDC as we seek to resolve this dispute.

The priority during any industrial action is to keep patients as safe as possible by minimising the impact of strikes. The NHS works hard to prioritise resources to protect emergency treatment, critical care, neonatal care, maternity services, and trauma care during strike periods, while also prioritising patients who have waited the longest for elective care and cancer surgery.

An operational response led by NHS England was stood up in advance of strike action to prepare for and mitigate impacts, with NHS England working closely with trusts and local systems on contingency planning and operational readiness.

Thanks to careful planning and the dedication of NHS staff, the NHS has previously been able to maintain approximately 95% of planned care during some strike periods, while continuing to deliver critical services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost to the NHS of resident doctors strikes since 2023.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Since 2023, there have been 65 strike days, including three rounds of five day industrial action in July, November, and December for 2025. We have estimated that resident doctor industrial action for 2025 cost £50 million per day. Overall costs are therefore approximately £3 billion, recognising that strikes in earlier years cost less due to subsequent inflation.

Found: House of Lords Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative; Life peer) Lord Boateng (Labour; Life peer) Lord Godson

Found: House of Lords Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative; Life peer) Lord Boateng (Labour; Life peer) Lord Godson

Found: present: Matt Western (The Chair); Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom; Lord Boateng; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Lord Godson

Found: present: Matt Western (The Chair); Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom; Lord Boateng; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Lord Godson

Found: present: Matt Western (The Chair); Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom; Lord Boateng; Liam Byrne; Bill Esterson; Lord Godson

Found: Boateng; Dame Karen Bradley; Liam Byrne; Sarah Champion; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Bill Esterson; Lord Godson

Found: Boateng; Dame Karen Bradley; Liam Byrne; Sarah Champion; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Bill Esterson; Lord Godson

Found: Edrom; Lord Boateng; Dame Karen Bradley; Liam Byrne; Sarah Champion; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Lord Godson

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Submit Evidence (by 6 Sep 2026)

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