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Written question asked by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative) on Thursday, 10 December 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 14 December 2009. It was answered by Mike O'Brien (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 January 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health.

NHS: Information and Communications Technology

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Pre-Budget Report, Cm 7747, what the (a) initial budget and (b) outturn was in respect of (i) revenue and (ii) capital expenditure for (A) the National Programme for IT and (B) each element of the National Programme for IT in each year since the inception of the programme; and how much (1) capital and (2) revenue funding has been allocated for each remaining year of the programme.
Answer

Comprehensive information in the form requested is not available. This is because the overall cost of the national programme for information technology (NPfTT) includes both central costs, and the costs managed by local national health service bodies incurred in implementing the systems, for example in training staff and upgrading computer hardware. Local information is not routinely collected in a way that differentiates expenditure on the IT programme from other local TT-related expenditure.Within the Department, NHS Connecting for Health, which came into being in April 2005, is responsible both for central expenditure necessary for ensuring delivery of the IT systems under the national programme, and for maintaining the critical business systems previously provided to the national health service by the former NHS Information Authority. NHS Connecting for Health does not prepare annual whole-programme budgets for NPfTT activity separate from those for its wider responsibilities as this would involve the unnecessary apportionment of common management, administrative and support costs. For the same reason, separate outturn figures are not routinely reported for management information purposes.Information covering all NHS Connecting for Health's responsibilities is shown in the following tables.

Initial Budget
£ million
2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Capital 1,198 1,055 915 917.0 800.0
Revenue 799 638 607 631.3 580.00
£ million
Actual expenditure Forecast Outturn
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
Capital 360.0 429.0 589.0 686.0 535.1 562.6
Revenue 260.0 539.0 528.0 507.0 528.4 573.8
Notes:
1. All sums exclude capital charges.
2. The amounts include the original costs of NPfTT contracts, which have not changed, but also include new and additional requirements that have been added, supported by separate business cases and funding, as reported by the National Audit Office.
3. Expenditure plans for years beyond 2009-10 are currently being reviewed in the light of announcements made in the pre-Budget report, and of the evolving IT needs of the NHS.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
503 c482-3W; 307703
Session
2009-10
Related items
Subjects
ICT NHS
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk