Streeting’s Department Hikes Staff Spending by £2.5 Million Despite Promised Efficiency Savings – Guido Fawkes

Streeting’s Department Hikes Staff Spending by £2.5 Million Despite Promised Efficiency Savings

mdi-fullscreen

Despite promising efficiency savings when it came into power Labour has failed to stop the health department’s payroll spending ballooning. Wes…

Labour magnanimously promised wide cuts across all departments back in August of last year. Those include:

• Savings in departments to fund pay pressures – £3.15 billion
• of which: reduce administration budgets by 2% – £225 million
• of which: stop all non-essential spending on communications – £50 million
• of which: stop all non-essential spending on consultancy in 2024-25 – £550 million

DHSC was set to see its budget fall by £30 million too by cancelling adult social care charging reforms. You would think with all that the spend would fall at least a little bit…

Instead a written parliamentary question has confirmed that DHSC’s total paybill and staffing costs have risen by £2.5 million since the election. Labour is blaming Assisted Dying plus other policies:

“Since the General Election, the Department’s staff numbers have needed to increase to ensure the right skills and capability to deliver several of the Government’s major priorities. These include the 10-Year Health Plan, the Assisted Dying Bill, ending the longest-running pay dispute with resident doctors, publishing an elective reform plan, and publishing a new NHS Mandate, as well as ensuring we can continue to deliver vital services across the health system. During this period, payroll costs have also increased because of annual pay increases.”

So much for efficiency…