NHS England Update

Lord Kakkar Excerpts

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I am very pleased to give the reassurance that the noble Baroness seeks. When we reflect, the disastrous 2012 top-down reorganisation certainly did not depoliticise the NHS—it made it less efficient and less able to treat patients on time.

This is not about politicisation; this is about responsible government. I add—without embarrassing anybody—that a number of former Conservative Health Ministers have said to me, and to my colleague Ministers and the Secretary of State, how much they welcome this and how they wish that they had taken this step. That, for me, as well as the tone of the contributions from the Front Benches today, provides the reassurance the noble Baroness seeks.

[Lord Kakkar (CB)]

My Lords, I draw the House’s attention to my registered interest as chairman of King’s Health Partners. In the announcement made by the right honourable Secretary of State for Health in the other place, there was particular emphasis on identifying that in this period of transition, NHS England will focus on ensuring that local providers are better able to cut waiting times and to organise their finances appropriately. But NHS England has many other functions beyond those two important ones, and they will need to be delivered in what is a substantial transformation in reabsorbing NHS England into the Department of Health and Social Care. What reassurance can the Minister give your Lordships’ House that functions such as the recently integrated Health Education England function into NHS England, the NHS Digital function and many others, are going to be properly supervised and delivered during this period? They are as essential, in many ways, as delivering on waiting times and organising finances.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right to talk about NHS England in all its functions. Bringing it together with the department will not diminish those functions but will allow them to be delivered rather more effectively than they are currently. At the head of the transformation team is Sir James Mackey, the new chief executive of NHS England, working with Dr Penny Dash as chair. Both individuals are well respected across the sector for their outstanding track records, not least on turning round NHS organisations, in Jim’s case, but also on balancing the books, driving up productivity and driving down waiting times—exactly what is needed. But I agree totally with the noble Lord, and we are going to ensure that the necessary functions are continued; it is the way they are delivered that we are changing.