Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 4 July (HL8840), whether more up-to-date figures on NHS productivity than those for 2015–16 will be available from the Office for National Statistics before NHS England agrees a final assumption on NHS productivity for its next five-year funding plan; and if not, on what basis will NHS England calculate its productivity assumption.

The Government expects the National Health Service’s long-term plan to be published later this year. This is ahead of the expected publication date of the Office for National Statistics’ English NHS productivity estimate for 2016-17 and therefore we do not expect these updated figures to be available before the final assumption on NHS productivity is agreed.

One of the financial tests that the Government has set the NHS is to improve productivity and efficiency in order to put the service onto a more sustainable footing. We expect the NHS to set out how it plans to do this, and the final productivity target for the NHS will be agreed with the Government. The final assumption will take into account future opportunities to improve productivity across the NHS, identified through the development of the NHS’s long-term plan, as well as recent trends.