Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the projected total cost of redundancy packages arising from the proposed changes to NHS England and DHSC; and what estimate he has made of the net financial benefit after these costs are accounted for.

The future Department will be smaller, more agile, and more efficient, delivering value for money for the public and empowering our health system to improve health and care for patients.

We recognise that to achieve this, there will be some short-term upfront costs as we undertake the integration of NHS England and the Department, but these costs and more will be recouped in future years because of a smaller and leaner centre.

By the end of the process, we estimate that these changes will save hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline services. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while transition planning is ongoing.