Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has awarded a contract for a consultant on the NHS review into productivity in the 2023-24 financial year.

The Department has not awarded a contract for a consultant to work on National Health Service productivity in 2023/24.

However, the Government is ambitious for NHS productivity. That is why the Long Term Workforce Plan set out an ambition to achieve 1.5-2% average workforce productivity growth. We would expect the NHS to make best use of all options available, including potential use of consultancy support where there is an appropriate value for money case to do so, to understand the challenge and deliver on this ambition.