Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has given to integrated care boards on covering redundancy programme costs.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board (ICB) running costs and NHS provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.

Funding agreements have been agreed with His Majesty’s Treasury to enable redundancies to be funded within the Department for Health and Social Care’s (DHSC’s) Spending Review settlement. In 2025/26 and beyond, DHSC will continue to operate within its funding settlement and will not overspend its budget in order to fund redundancies, nor cut any investment to the frontline. The precise split between financial years and organisations is being worked through as operational delivery planning progresses.