British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced he will abolish NHS England as part of his plans to overhaul the public sector.
NHS England leads the NHS in England – which means the PM’s announcement only affects this area.
After devolution, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland became responsible for a number of policy areas, one of which was health.
The UK has had devolved governments since the late 1990s, which work alongside the Westminster Parliament.
Explaining his decision during a speech laying out plans to make the “overcautious, flabby state” more effective, including putting the NHS “back into democratic control”, the prime minister said decisions about billions of pounds of taxpayer money should not be taken by an “arms-length” body.
He said the move would free up cash for doctors, nurses and frontline services, and cut red tape to help speed up improvements in the health service amid frustrations about the pace of change.
Starmer said: “I don’t see why decisions about £200bn of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arm’s length body, NHS England.
“And I can’t, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy. That money could and should be spent on, nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments.
“So today, I can announce we’re going to cut bureaucracy… focus government on the priorities of working people, shift money to the front line.
“So I’m bringing management of the NHS back into democratic control by abolishing the arms-length body, NHS England.
“That will put the NHS back at the heart of government where it belongs, free it to focus on patients – less bureaucracy with more money for nurses.”
Answering a question from a cancer patient on how the decision would improve NHS services, Starmer said: “Amongst the reasons we are abolishing it is because of the duplication.
“So, if you can believe it, we’ve got a communications team in NHS England, we’ve got a communications team in the health department of government; we’ve got a strategy team in NHS England, a strategy team in the government department. We are duplicating things that could be done once.
“If we strip that out, which is what we are doing today, that then allows us to free up that money to put it where it needs to be, which is the front line.”
The government said work would begin “immediately” to return many of NHS England’s functions to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Former Tory chancellor and health secretary Jeremy Hunt now commends the “boldness” of the plan announced today.
He warns that if this only serves to replace bureaucratic over-centralisation with political over-centralisation “it will fail”.
He asks Streeting about getting rid of central targets, and also whether he agrees the care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), retains a “vital” role to call out poor care.
The health secretary responds that “democratic accountability matters”.
He underlines that over-centralisation “has got to stop”, calling this the “biggest decentralisation of power” in the history of the NHS.
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