Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the levels of productivity in the NHS.

The most recent indicator of National Health Service productivity comes from the January to March 2023 Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) quarterly total public sector productivity measure, which is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/publicservicesproductivity/bulletins/publicserviceproductivityquarterlyuk/januarytomarch2023#:~:text=Public%20service%20productivity%20rose%20by%200.9%25%20in%20Quarter%201%202023,increase%20of%207.3%25%20in%202021.

This measure doesn’t specifically identify health productivity but as health is around 40% of the measure, it is an indication of health productivity. The latest figures for January to March 2023 showed public service productivity was 11.6% above the average 2020/21 level suggesting NHS productivity is recovering.