Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of effectiveness of the Government’s procurement strategy for (a) health and (b) social care.

The role of the Department’s Commercial Directorate is to provide the Department and wider health system with the appropriate commercial strategy, leadership, insight, and advice to enable delivery of the Government’s Health Mission, consistently maximising value for money. The directorate is responsible for oversight and assurance of procurement activity in the Health Family, including Arms Length Bodies like NHS England and The UK Health Security Agency, which encompasses approval of high-value or high-risk business cases.

The directorate is also responsible for ensuring that procurement policy is aligned to Cabinet Office requirements, and that Health Family commercial compliance and performance is continually assessed for improvement against the Government’s Commercial Functional Standards, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-commercial-function

The directorate sets an annual commercial savings target against contracts the Department awards and manages. For 2023/24, the directorate has delivered £44.6 million worth of commercial savings and benefits through procurement and contract management activity within the Department.