NHS England: Staff Costs

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Lord, as always, raises exceptionally important points. The three shifts under the 10-year plan, particularly around moving from analogue to digital, answer the question on the need to focus on digital. These are ongoing discussions and, while the workforce will come down, it is critical that work is allowed to be done to assess what needs to be done and how we can move the health service, and therefore health outcomes, forward in the most productive and successful manner.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, have the Government ever undertaken an audit of the NHS estate—for example, in York and North Yorkshire—to see whether there are a number of redundant buildings following successive reorganisations of the NHS? If it were to emerge that some of these buildings were redundant, would the Government be minded to sell them off and raise money for the NHS in that way?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The point that the noble Baroness raises is not a new one. As anyone from the local government sphere will know, there are always ongoing conversations about the estate, where it lies, its ownership and how we can move it into the future, and I do not think anything has changed. What we know is that, through these changes, the alignment of public services is going to be fundamental. The use of buildings is a vexed issue across the public sector and will need to be on the table.