Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) expenditure limit and (b) actual spend was for agency staffing spend for each NHS (i) integrated care system, (ii) trust and (iii) foundation in the 2022-23 financial year; and what the expenditure limit will be for each organisation in the 2023-24 financial year.

NHS England does not set limits by trusts, but rather by systems. The attached table lists the system agency expenditure limits for 2022/23 and 2023/24.

NHS England re-established agency expenditure limits for systems in September 2022. The limits set for 2022/23 require at least a 10% reduction compared to the previous year in line with provider plans. Limits in 2023/24 have been set with the ambition of reducing total agency expenditure by trusts (in aggregate) to 3.7% of the total estimated National Health Service pay bill.

Agency spend data in 2022/23 is not yet available. Provider financial accounts for 2022/23, including data on agency spending, is currently being audited and will be published in due course.