Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure inefficiencies across the NHS are reduced.

The National Health Service has agreed to double its annual efficiency target from 1.1% to 2.2%. The ‘2023/24 priorities and operational planning’ guidance, published on 23 December 2022, sets out key objectives to deliver this target over the year ahead. This includes supporting a more productive workforce, taking advantage of opportunities to deploy staff more flexibly, increasing theatre productivity, drawing on ‘Getting It Right First Time’ guidance, reducing agency spending, reducing corporate running costs, reducing procurement and supply chain costs, improving inventory management, and purchasing medicines at the most effective price point.