Commentary on provisions of Act
Section 1: Funding Settlement for the Health Service in England
- Subsection (1) sets out the duty on the Secretary of State to allot to NHSE, as a minimum, the amount of funding for each financial year set out in the table below.
Financial Year Amount Ending with 31 st March 2021 £127,007,000,000 Ending with 31 st March 2022 £133,283,000,000 Ending with 31 st March 2023 £139,990,000,000 Ending with 31 st March 2024 £148,467,000,000 - The funding settlement, announced in January 2019, referred only to revenue spending for NHSE. It is the intention that this Act also only covers NHS England revenue spending. As such subsection (2) confers a duty on the Secretary of State to ensure this funding is only used as revenue resource, rather than as capital resource.
- The 2006 Act (section 13A) states that NHSE is subject to an annual "mandate", which the Secretary of State must publish and lay before Parliament before the start of each financial year. The mandate must specify the limits that the Secretary of State has decided on NHSE’s capital and revenue resource use for that financial year as set out in section 223D of the 2006 Act.
- Subsection (2) requires the Secretary of State to specify such limits on capital and revenue resource use under section 223D of the 2006 Act as the Secretary of State considers necessary to ensure that the amounts specified in the table in subsection (1) are used only as revenue resource.
- Estimates are the documents presented to Parliament by the Treasury setting out the Government’s plans for spending for the relevant year. Estimates take into account Departments’ proposed Departmental Expenditure Limits, Annually Managed Expenditure and Total Managed Expenditure grouping the planned expenditure for each department in accordance with these categories. The Treasury lays the Estimates before Parliament for its approval and once approved the relevant limits are subsequently set out in Supply and Appropriation Acts which provide statutory authority for the amounts of resources sought in the Estimates and therefore for most departmental expenditure.
- Subsection (3) puts a duty on the Treasury to ensure that the Department of Health and Social Care Estimates laid before Parliament are consistent with the amounts of revenue resource funding for NHSE for the relevant year, as set out in the table in subsection (1).
- Subsection (4) defines an "allotment to the health service in England" as an allotment under section 223B(2) of the National Health Service Act 2006 or a new allotment under section 223B(3) of the National Health Service Act 2006. This ensures that the duty in subsection (1) on the Secretary of State applies to any allotment in the relevant financial years.
- Section 223B(1) of the 2006 Act provides that the Secretary of State must pay to NHSE sums not exceeding the amount allotted for that year towards meeting the expenditure of NHSE.
Section 2: Extent, commencement, expiry and short title
- Subsection (1) sets out the territorial extent of the Act, that is the jurisdictions within which the Act forms part of the law.
- The Act extends to England and Wales only.
- Subsection (2) provides that the provisions of the Act come into force on the day that the Act is passed.
- Subsection (3) provides that the legislation will expire at the end of 31st March 2024. This reflects the fact that the Act makes provision in relation to NHSE funding for the financial years 2020/21 to 2023/24 only.
- Subsection (4) states the Act’s short title as the ‘NHS Funding Act 2020’.
