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 help NHS hospitals with trends in the level of inflation on (a) soft service and (b) security contract costs.

The Government has taken swift action in response to the inflationary pressures on the National Health Service, providing additional funding of £3.3 billion at the Autumn Statement in each of the next two years. In 2023/24 the funding issued to the NHS and reflected in the NHS payment scheme (i.e. tariff) cost uplift factor takes account of inflationary pressures in 2022/23 as well as further growth to account for expected non-pay inflation and energy price increases in 2023/24.

The Department has held webinar sessions with commercial colleagues from its Arms’ Length Bodies, which includes NHS England, to share information and effective commercial practices with regards to the use of different pricing models to reduce inflation risk at point of tender and effective contract management practices to respond to the impacts of inflation. NHS England meet regularly with regions, systems, and providers to review their financial positions, which includes considerations of inflation.