Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the impact of the analysis that the July and November five day resident doctors’ strikes are estimated to have cost £500 million by the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic Financial Outlook (page 122).

We stand by the approximate £500 million figure as a reasonable estimate of the combined cost of resident doctor strikes so far this year in July and November 2025. This figure is based on actual costs from July 2025, approximately £240 million, and an initial estimate for November 2025 based on similar levels of activity output and turnout, to those seen in July. We will continue to update the estimate for November strikes as new data becomes available, in line with receiving business as usual financial data from National Health Service systems.