NHS: In-house Software Capabilities

Viscount Hanworth Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Viscount Hanworth]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have for sustaining and enhancing the in-house software capabilities of the NHS.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, NHS Digital services are built and run to rigorous Government Digital Service standards. They are secure, user-centred, interoperable and continually improving. National Health Service England has significantly expanded its in-house engineering and data capability, and it is reducing its reliance on outsourced systems and strengthening operational resilience. These measures ensure that health and care data is available in all clinical settings to improve outcomes for patients, while delivering value for money to the taxpayer.

--- Later in debate ---

[Viscount Hanworth (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that reassuring Answer. The NHS has had a disastrous history of outsourcing its IT technology, which has wasted millions of pounds. A requirement of outsourcing is that there must be sufficient in-house expertise to properly assess the need for outside assistance and the quality of whatever assistance is on offer. In the absence of such expertise, outsourcing can be perilous. Moreover, given the requisite in-house expertise, outsourcing may become unnecessary. At a time when a host of novel IT solutions are becoming available, the IT staff of NHS England are seeing their numbers radically reduced. At the same time, the NHS is becoming increasingly dependent on the services of large American IT corporations. Can we be assured—genuinely assured—that history will not be repeating itself?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to point out the history. The NHS previously relied very heavily on large, outsourced IT systems that, in some cases, led to inflexibility, high long-term costs and limited NHS control over core platforms and data. I was glad to arrange for my noble friend to meet the chief data and analytics officer at NHS England last Wednesday. I hope that, like me, he was reassured that NHS England has very much shifted its model towards building and operating critical digital services in-house, in line with the standards that I referred to in my initial Answer.