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 31 March 2025 to Question 40741 on Health Services: Public Consultation, how much his Department has spent on the Change NHS portal to support the development of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Following an invitation to tender competition process, we appointed Thinks Insight, Kaleidoscope Health and Care, and IPPR to support us in running the engagement exercise for the 10-Year Health Plan. The awarded value of the contract is up to £2,961,595.50, with an option to vary to £3,500,000 in the event that the scope of the contract evolves. This includes running in-person deliberative engagement events with members of the public and health and care staff, further online and in-person engagement activities, the Change NHS online portal, and the analysis of the insight received.

The details of this award and redacted contracts can be found on the 10 Year Health Plan Engagement Exercise Contracts Finder on the GOV.UK website. Information regarding the breakdown of the overall costs can be found from page 118 of the contract. However, this information is exempt under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which exempts from the general duty to release information which would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any entity, including the public authority holding the information.