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 assess the value for money of consultancy work in the NHS.

There are spending controls in place that requires consultancy expenditure by National Health Service trusts above £50,000 to be approved by NHS England regional panels.

All NHS England consultancy business cases that are above the delegated approval thresholds of £100,000 and/or greater than six months in length are submitted to the Department’s Commercial Assurance team. The team applies the principles of the Cabinet Office consultancy playbook, including a value for money assessment which is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1103954/The_Consultancy_Playbook_Version_1.1_September_2022.pdf

If all tests are met the cases are then referred for Ministerial approval.