Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what the cash value is of the productivity and efficiency savings they assumed in their submission to the NHS Pay Review Body for the NHS Agenda for Change staff pay award 2026–27; and whether they assumed those savings could be released (1) at the beginning of the financial year, or (2) during the financial year.

At the 2024 Autumn Statement, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to a 2% annual productivity growth target for the National Health Service. This is a stretching but essential ambition to ensure the NHS can meet rising demand within a tight financial settlement and return to pre-pandemic productivity levels. Detail on this was provided as part of the pay review body written evidence to give context to the wider NHS England financial position against which decisions are set.

Currently NHS productivity is running ahead of the 2% target, and increased by 2.8% in the first seven months of this financial year. This builds on the 2.7% growth between the 2024/25 and 2023/24 financial years. Consequently, we remain confident in delivering the 2% target.

The pay review body evidence did not set an explicit efficiency target. In practice, efficiency savings as a percentage run well ahead of 2% because they including non-recurrent savings and technical efficiencies, for instance reductions in agency costs, that are outside of productivity calculations. In 2024/25, NHS systems planned what was then the most ambitious efficiency and savings measures to date, targeting £9.3 billion, the equivalent to 6.1% of their total allocation. In 2025/26, systems have planned £11.1 billion of efficiencies and savings, 7.1% of the total allocation. NHS England will finalise planned efficiency and savings for the 2026/27 financial year as part of the normal planning process that is currently underway. Efficiencies are delivered throughout the course of the financial year, rather than all upfront at the start of the year.