Health and Care Act 2022

30 Expansion of financial duties of integrated care boards and their partners

(1) The National Health Service Act 2006 is amended as follows.

(2) Omit section 223GC (inserted by section 29 of this Act).

(3) After section 223L (inserted by section 29 of this Act) insert—

“223LA Financial duties of integrated care boards etc: expenditure limits

(1) An integrated care board and its partner NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts must exercise their functions with a view to ensuring that their expenditure in a financial year (taken together) does not exceed the aggregate of any sums received by them in the year.

(2) Where an NHS trust or NHS foundation trust is the partner of more than one integrated care board its receipts and expenditure are to be apportioned for the purposes of this section to one or more of the integrated care boards in such manner as may be provided for in a direction by NHS England.

(3) NHS England may by direction—

(a) specify descriptions of expenditure that are, or are not, to be treated for the purposes of this section as expenditure incurred by a body, or expenditure incurred by it in a particular financial year;

(b) specify descriptions of sums that are, or are not, to be treated for the purposes of this section as having been received by a body, or as having been received by it in a particular financial year;

(c) provide for sums received by an integrated care board under section 223G in a year but not spent to be treated for the purposes of this section as expenditure by it in a particular financial year.

(4) For the purposes of this section any sum allotted to an integrated care board for a year under section 223G is to be treated as received by it in that year (subject to any direction under subsection (3)(b)).”