Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October to Question 178506 on NHS Trusts: Standards, whether (a) the NHS provider deficit, (b) the size of individual trust deficits, and (c) the number of trusts reporting a deficit, have improved since 2010-11, and if he will make a statement.

Due to a number of systemic changes, including those made as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, trust deficit figures within the National Health Service are not comparable with those in 2010. In seven of the last eight years the Department has lived within its total revenue budget – which covers the entire health and social care system. This is the key metric of financial performance for the NHS i.e. whether in aggregate the NHS over, or under-spent.

Fewer trusts are in deficit and the size of those deficits are down compared to 2015-16. But problems in a minority of trusts do still exist, and tackling that challenge is key to the success of the NHS’s plan.