Facts on Health spending

State spending isn’t at a record high when you consider the size of the economy

Public spending amounts to around 40% of the size of the economy. It’s been smaller before. It’s also been bigger before.

The £20.5 billion NHS England spending increase is the largest five year increase since the mid-2000s

NHS England spending is set to increase by £20.5 billion between 2018/19 and 2023/24. The last time spending increased by at least that amount was between 2004/05 and 2009/10.

The government has given six hospitals money to upgrade buildings

…not 40 hospitals as the announcement initially suggested.

Money for the NHS: is it new or not?

It all depends on what you mean by new. But the £1 billion was money that had already been promised to hospitals but which they were unable to spend previously.

Was a record amount spent on private providers by the Department of Health?

£9.2 billion was spent on purchasing health care from private providers in 2018/19—a record amount in cash terms, but not in real terms or as a proportion of the department’s budget.

Spending on the NHS in England

How much will the government spend on health in England over the next few years?

Mental health spending in the English NHS

Around one in every ten pounds spent by the Department of Health in England goes on mental health in the NHS.

Will local NHS services in England have £570 billion to spend over the next five years?

Funding is expected to increase by around £3 billion each year in real terms.

NHS England: £394 million more a week?

Spending on NHS England will have increased by £394 million a week by 2023/24 compared to 2018/19. But the money won’t come from a “Brexit dividend" and doesn’t cover all health spending.

Do diabetes prescriptions cost £1 billion a year?

This is the cost before VAT and things like discounts the NHS in England might receive or extra costs relating to dispensing are applied – figures aren’t available on how much it actually costs.