Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Government is making towards achieving the target it set in 2018 to increase the NHS budget by £33.9 billion a year, in cash terms, by 2023-24.
The NHS Long Term Plan set the target of increasing the National Health Service resource budget by £33.9 billion by 2023/24 to a total of £148.5 billion. The additional financial support provided to the NHS for the temporary impacts of COVID-19 have seen the NHS budget exceed £149 billion since 2020/21. Funding confirmed at the Spending Review and the long term settlement in 2018 have ensured the NHS resource budget in England will increase to £157.4 billion in 2023/24 and reach £162.6 billion in 2024/25.
The Government’s commitment to an additional £39 billion for the NHS and social care over three years announced in April 2022 is additional to the 2018 pledge.