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Written question asked by Lord Warner (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Thursday, 15 December 2011.

NHS: Debt

Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current level of historic debt of (1) foundation trusts, and (2) non-foundation trusts, for each strategic health authority (SHA) at the latest date for which figures are available; and what is the size of the financial reserves held by foundation trusts in each SHA area.
Answer

National Health Service trusts have a statutory duty to ensure that revenue is not less than sufficient, taking one year with another, to meet outgoings properly chargeable to the revenue account. This is known as the break-even duty. The value of the cumulative deficit reported by NHS trusts aggregated to strategic health authority (SHA) level at the end of the 2010-11 financial year for the purposes of this duty was £629 million, as shown in the table.

NHS Trusts historic debt by Strategic Health Authority, as at 31 March 2011
Strategic Health Authority £000s
East Midlands Strategic Health Authority 8,527
East of England Strategic Health Authority 41,942
London Strategic Health Authority 344,846
North East Strategic Health Authority 0
North West Strategic Health Authority 11,549
South Central Strategic Health Authority 28,048
South East Coast Strategic Health Authority 45,533
South West Strategic Health Authority 65,833
West Midlands Strategic Health Authority 43,036
Yorkshire and The Humber Strategic Health Authority 39,222
England 628,536

"Source: NHS Trust audited summarisation schedules 2010-11" NHS foundation trusts are not subject to the same statutory break-even duty, and do not, therefore, have cumulative or historic debt. Accumulated losses and retained earnings as at 30 September 2011 (unaudited) are shown in the table. NHS foundation trusts do not report to SHAs, but are referenced in the table to make the geography clear.

Strategic Health Authority Accumulated losses (000s) * Retained Earnings (000s) **
North East Strategic Health Authority -390,106 57,926
North West Strategic Health Authority -158,340 270,663
Yorkshire and The Humber Strategic Health Authority -12,981 515,664
East Midlands Strategic Health Authority -233,092 19,256
West Midlands Strategic Health Authority -360,446 273,439
East of England Strategic Health Authority -67,683 54,588
London Strategic Health Authority -63,301 103,005
South East Coast Strategic Health Authority -41,944 217,724
South Central Strategic Health Authority -411,608 80,767
South West Strategic Health Authority -66,626 89,951
England -1,806,127 1,682,985

"Source: NHS Foundation Trust Quarter Two 2011-12 Financial Returns""* Accumulated losses are the deficit balances seen per SHA for Retained Earnings""** Retained earnings are the surplus balances seen per SHA for Retained Earnings" "* Accumulated losses are the deficit balances seen per SHA for Retained Earnings""** Retained earnings are the surplus balances seen per SHA for Retained Earnings" "** Retained earnings are the surplus balances seen per SHA for Retained Earnings"

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
14123; 733 c285-6WA
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Debts Finance NHS trusts NHS foundation trusts
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk