Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the estimated cost of inefficiency in the NHS has been in each year since 2010.

Neither the Department nor the National Health Service calculate a single estimate of inefficiency in the National Health Service. However, significant work in recent years has gone into calculating unwarranted variation in the NHS.

The Lord Carter reviews into unwarranted variation, published in 2016-18, identified £5.8 billion of recurrent savings. These reports identified variation in service delivery, to quantify potential savings, noting that some variation is warranted and desirable, when different circumstances require it.

In 2017/18, the NHS made £1.45 billion of efficiency savings, by enacting the recommendations of the Carter report and reducing unwarranted variation. Central support was delivered to trusts across a range of programmes, including the clinical workforce, diagnostics, pharmacy, back-office services, estates and procurement. Trusts have identified further opportunities beyond this, at a local level, and have been supported by the Department and NHS Improvement to deliver these additional savings.