As requested by the prime minister: What’s happened to NHS spending?published at 22:04
By Anthony Reuben
The prime minister said:
“There is more money going into the NHS today than there has been in
its history and I’m sure BBC Verify after this debate will verify this for
you.”
Indeed we have. There are different ways
of measuring how much is being spent on the NHS in England.
The health budget for this
year stands at £179.6bn, which is a record amount in cash terms. You would
expect that to be the case as the population grows and ages and medical
treatment gets more expensive.
You can also look at
what proportion of government spending is going on health and that has also
been increasing in recent years.
Spending on health as a
proportion of the size of the economy peaked at 12.4% in 2021 during the
pandemic. It fell back somewhat in the year after that but still remained above
pre-pandemic levels.
However,
independent think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that the government has been spending less than it planned to in its 2019 election
manifesto, despite the pandemic.
The 2019 plans were for
NHS spending to increase by 3.3% above inflation each year, but the IFS has calculated, external that it has gone up by 2.7% a year on average.
