Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost of redundancy as a result of the plan to abolish NHS England and restructure integrated care boards; and what redundancy costs have been incurred as a result of those plans to date.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we have been clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as on the need to scale back integrated care board (ICB) running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs, in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.

Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit and expressions of interest respectively.

In the case of ICBs, ahead of asking the NHS to commence a multi-year planning round we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs.