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NHS: Public Expenditure

Asked by Valerie VazLabourDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 24 November 2025UIN 91942

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing an NHS body to roll over to the next financial year any unspent budget to avoid incentivising unnecessary expenditure within that financial year.

Answered by Karin Smyth

NHS England publishes guidance setting out the revenue finance and contracting framework for National Health Service organisations. The guidance for 2026/27 onwards has recently been published to support the Medium Term Planning Framework, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/medium-term-planning-framework-revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance/

Where an integrated care board (ICB) delivers a surplus, this will be applied to the ICB cumulative position as set out in the updated NHS finance business rules, and available for drawdown in future years subject to agreement with NHS England as part of the financial planning process.

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