Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many NHS trusts would not have been in financial balance in financial year 2014–15 without further in-year supplements to their approved budget for that year; and what percentage of all NHS trusts that represents.

Lord Prior of Brampton

National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts do not receive budgets directly from the Department. They receive income via the provision of services to NHS England and clinical commissioning groups, through what might be described as trading activity.

In addition to normal income sources, in 2014-15 the Department provided non-recurrent deficit support income directly to NHS trusts. Without this non-recurrent funding, 125 organisations would have been in financial deficit. This equates to 51% of all NHS trusts and foundation trusts.