Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 10 of HM Treasury's document entitled Fixing the foundations: Public spending audit 2024-25, published on 29 July 2024, whether his plans to cut (a) consultancy and (b) communications spending apply to (i) NHS trusts and (ii) NHS England.

The Department is exploring options across all budgets within its remit to identify savings to contribute to pressures revealed in the audit, as outlined in HM Treasury’s document entitled Fixing the foundations: Public spending audit 2024-25. This includes, but is not exclusive to, taking action to reduce non-essential consultancy and communications spending.