Financial accounting and reporting updates

NHS providers can refer to this page for the latest updates on financial accounting and reporting. We also email updates to finance teams.

Quick links

International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 16 Leases

Our IFRS 16 guidance has its own webpage. The latest updates will be listed on this page.

Current form and submission issues

There are currently no known issues in the 2024/25 month 9 PFR form.

Latest financial reporting updates

TAC Completion Instructions: month 9 2025/26 – 19 December 2025

Guidance on completing the Trust Accounts Consolidation (TAC) schedules for month 9 2025/26: TAC Completion Instructions month 9 2025/26

IFRS 17 – simplified guide to double entries – 19 December 2025

A simplified guide to IFRS 17 double entries has been produced to aid organisations, who have identified themselves as the issuer of an insurance contract, understand the interaction with the net insurance liability/asset on the SoFP. IFRS 17 double entries – a simplified guide

HM Treasury discount rates update – 9 December 2025

HM Treasury has issued its annual update to discount rates.  This detail will be repeated formally in the DHSC GAM update when issued in the new year.

2025/26 accounts and audit timetable – updated 9 December 2025

On 26 November, we issued the 2025/26 accounts and audit timetable.  Accounts timetable 2025-26. This document was updated on 9 December to include Greenbury disclosure request dates confirmed by NHS BSA.

In line with the intention to bring forward the timetable for completion and following discussions with the local audit firms, audited submissions have been brought forward by two working days for both commissioners and providers. The staggered approach to audited submissions introduced in 2024/25 has been retained. The headline dates are:

ICBs / CSUs Providers
 Month 9 Friday 23 January 2026 Friday 23 January 2026
 Month 12 draft accounts Monday 27 April 2026 Monday 27 April 2026
 Month 12 audited accounts Friday 19 June 2026 Friday 26 June 2026

Certificates of audit completion: manuals update – 25 June 2025

On 13 June we wrote to providers with guidance confirming that annual reports and accounts can be published (and laid) with the inclusion of the audit report but without the audit certificate (which would be identified as ‘delayed’ in the audit report). Once available, audit certificates should be published separately at a later date alongside the annual report and accounts. The annual report and accounts document is not updated at that time. We can now confirm that the associated updates to reporting manuals have been published:

Audited accounts and annual report submission checklist 2024/25 – 13 June 2025

We have prepared our annual year end checklist to aid providers with preparations for submitting the audited annual report and accounts. This checklist contains no new information but is available to download if useful.

2024/25 year end accounts timetable – updated 13 June 2025

On 20 November we issued the accounts timetable for 2024/25. Accounts timetable 2024-25

  • A staggered audit completion approach for ICBs and providers has been agreed for 2024/25.  ICBs will submit audited accounts by 23 June. NHS providers will submit audited accounts by 30 June.  For full dates and submission requirements please refer to timetable.
  • For NHS providers we have introduced suggested deadlines for draft annual reports for the first time. This is about setting an expectation for when the remuneration report and other parts of the annual report should be provided to external auditors; draft annual reports for providers are not required to be submitted to NHS England unless regional colleagues specifically request them. Providers can continue to agree this timing with their auditor, but our timetable now specifies an expectation to base this from. Deadlines for the submission of draft accounts to NHS England remain fixed.

The timetable was updated on 3 February 2025 to include NHS BSA ‘Greenbury’ information request dates. The timetable was further updated on 13 June 2025 to include arrangements for NHS foundation trusts laying annual reports before Parliament and to reflect updated arrangements for certificates of audit completion.

Accounting policies update: Standards not yet adopted – changes to non-investment asset measurement – 9 April 2025

On 21 March we confirmed that the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB) agreed to the approach set out in the DHSC GAM consultation for 2025/26 regarding the measurement of property assets. There are no changes to the policy on the treatment or frequency of property valuations in 2025/26.

To aid providers in preparing the Standards in issue not yet adopted disclosure in their accounting policies (Note 1.28 in the NHS provider example accounting policies), we have updated and expanded upon paragraph 1.34 of the 2024/25 DHSC GAM to include details of the asset measurement changes and how adoption of these changes in the NHS will differ to the rest of public sector. We have also updated the reference to IFRS 17 insurance contracts given it is now after 1 April 2025. This update is prepared by NHS England as an example to assist providers preparing this disclosure and does not form part of the DHSC GAM or relevant accounts direction.

NHS pension scheme disclosure for 2024/25 – 9 April 2025

The template disclosure on the NHS pension scheme for inclusion in 2024/25 accounts is now available.

A PDF version is also available which tracks changes compared to the version included in the optional provider accounts templates issued on 11 March to aid providers in updating those templates locally.

NHS trusts: 2024/25 annual governance statement and certificates for year end accounts – 11 March 2025

The following document provides guidance to NHS trusts preparing annual governance statements (AGS) for their 2024/25 annual reports. It also contains the required formats for other certificates/statements for year end accounts.  A Word document is also provided to facilitate copying. This does not apply to NHS foundation trusts who should follow the formats prescribed by the FT ARM.

NHS foundation trust annual reporting manual (FT ARM) 2024/25 – 11 March 2025

The FT ARM for 2024/25 is available at NHS foundation trust annual reporting manual (FT ARM).

To facilitate copying, a Word document of the model Annual Governance Statement (AGS) and other certificates/statements needed for the annual report and accounts is also available below.

DHSC IFRS 17 training materials – 13 January 2025

This IFRS 17 slide deck has been produced by the Department of Health and Social Care to provide training materials for the new standard and simple implementation tools.

DHSC IFRS 17 insurance contracts slide deck – January 2025

2023/24 year end accounts timetable letter – updated 7 June 2024

We have issued the accounts timetable letter for 2023/24. It was updated on 7 June with laying instructions and publication deadlines.

Letter on payments to NHS charities – 3 May 2024

Last week NHS England issued a letter to NHS provider chief finance officers regarding payments to NHS charities. A copy of this letter is available here. Any queries relating to it should be raised with the Assurance mailbox as detailed in the letter.

Clarification on prior year approach for small discretionary awards to staff – 3 May 2024

Section 2.1.5 of the TAC Completion Instructions offers updated guidance for 2023/24 on whether arrangements like this constitute special payments. The third paragraph explains the changed guidance from NHS England compared to that issued during the 2022/23 year end process. The TAC Completion Instructions suggests that providers ‘may wish to revisit comparatives in their accounts’. To clarify, this is not intended to suggest NHS England is mandating a prior period adjustment. As ever, the Trust should consider whether it thinks this change is material (by value or by nature) to warrant a restatement of the prior year, and as ever would make this judgement in consultation with its auditors. Where we have removed cases from comparatives in TAC 29 upon customisation of files but the Trust does not restate its accounts, this is a permissible inconsistency between accounts and TACs for the prior year comparative.

Mapping FT Code of Governance disclosures – 19 February 2024

The FT ARM contains disclosure requirements stemming from the updated Code of governance for NHS provider trusts.  This document provides additional guidance to help NHS foundation trusts map from the disclosure requirements in the former FT Code of governance to the current Code of governance document. It does not form part of the FT ARM and is optional for use.

Update to DHSC IFRS 16 PFI accounting model – 15 December 2023

A minor update to the DHSC PFI model has been issued to include additional memorandum calculations that identify the maturity analysis of the closing gross and net lease obligation for accounts disclosure. For more information please refer to FAQ A12 in the updated FAQ document. Both updates can be found on our IFRS 16 webpage.

Determination over NHS Trust annual reports – 6 June 2023

The Health and Care Act 2022 transferred the power to determine the form of an NHS trust’s annual report from the Secretary of State to NHS England. This document formalises the arrangements. There is no new action required for NHS trusts – this document confirms that NHS trusts should follow DHSC’s Group Accounting Manual in the same way as they previously have and currently do.

Reminder: regularity approvals and subsidiaries – emailed to providers on 3 March 2023

Our timetable letter for 2022/23 included a summary of approvals that must be sought by providers over special payments and non-contractual exit packages. Providers are reminded that this control framework applies equally to subsidiaries that are controlled by the entity: that is, subsidiaries that should be consolidated within local group accounts on the basis of control. The principle is established by Managing Public Money (paragraph 3.10.3). The accounting/accountable officer of a provider with a subsidiary should have meaningful oversight of the subsidiary.

Accounts payable addresses for ICBs from 1 July – 15 June 2022

NHS SBS has been working closely with NHS England to ensure accounts payable processes are up and running for ICBs from 1 July. Accounts payable addresses for all ICBs from 1 July can be found here. Please use this information to update local finance systems.

A mapping document of CCGs to ICBs is also available here. Any outstanding invoices on CCG ledgers are expected to be transferred to ICB ledgers during July.

Special payments – 22 April 2021

Following this letter, organisations are reminded that proposed special payments that are either (i) above £95,000 and/or (ii) considered potentially novel, contentious or could cause repercussions elsewhere in the public sector, should be submitted for HM Treasury approval. Please contact england.assurance@nhs.net with any queries over this process.

Year end accounting guidance for 2020/21 items – updated 26 March 2021

A third version of guidance on accounting for 2020/21 items has been issued. The main update is adding the process for communicating details of testing equipment. The trusts to which this applies received a listing from Provider Accounts on 26 March. The guidance in this document remains applicable for the 2021/22 year end.

Accounting for additional employer pension contributions from 2020/21 – 22 January 2021

The employer contribution rate for the NHS Pension Scheme increased from 14.38% to 20.68% from 2019/20, but NHS providers have continued to pay over at the old rate with the additional 6.3% being settled centrally on their behalf by NHS England. As was the case for 2019/20, in 2020/21, the full 20.38% needs to be reflected in local provider accounts, with notional income from NHS England being recognised for the 6.3% element.

For the purposes of accounts NHS England will again compute the full year 6.3% figure for each provider, extrapolating from data provided by NHS BSA at month 10. We will communicate this figure to providers and populate a validation in month 12 TAC schedules. Based on previous analysis, the impact of using an estimate in this way will be highly immaterial. In the rare circumstances that the estimate leads to a more significant difference for any particular provider, there is a process where entities can ask for the national figures to be updated. More details are available in the guidance document below.

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts – 8 August 2019

IFRS 17 on insurance contracts (replacing IFRS 4) is expected to apply to the public sector from 2022. An insurance contract is defined as “a contract under which one party (the issuer) accepts significant insurance risk from another party (the policyholder) by agreeing to compensate the policyholder if a specific uncertain future event (the insured event) adversely affects the policyholder”.

IFRS 17 brings a number of changes to accounting compared to IFRS 4; a useful summary is available here. But the first step for HM Treasury and DHSC is to identify what contracts might be held that would fall under IFRS 17. It’s possible that there may be items currently considered as provisions or contingent liabilities which are in reality insurance contracts. There are a number of important parts of the definition (this list is not complete):

  • The compensation from the issuer to the policyholder could be in money or in-kind: for example fixing a broken machine
  • The future event is uncertain – which means at least one of the probability of the event occurring, when it will occur, or how much would be paid if it occurs.
  • The future event is specific to the insured party (e.g. flood damage to a building owned or used by the policyholder is specific to that party).
  • The risk around the future event existed for the policyholder before the agreement was made, and it is not financial risk such as a future change in an index.
  • Warranties provided in connection with the sale of goods and services are specifically excluded by the standard as they fall under IFRS 15. So for example we would see readmissions in the NHS as affecting IFRS 15 measurement, and not considered the provision of insurance. Employer pensions and insurance contracts where the entity is the policyholder are also excluded from IFRS 17.

We request that all NHS providers think about whether they are likely to have contracts which are likely to fall under IFRS 17, with the provider as the issuer (rather than the policyholder). If you do have, or have matters that you’re unsure about and would like to discuss further, please get in touch with us.

New accounting standards in 2018/19 – April 2019 (re-packaged December 2019)

The TAC Completion Instructions in 2018/19 contained additional annexes explaining how the disclosure requirements in IFRS 7 (upon adoption of IFRS 9) and IFRS 15 had been addressed in the TAC schedules, with additional guidance on considerations for local accounts. These are now (from December 2019) retained separately as a future reference for providers.

Central review of NHS standard contract for IFRS 15 – 29 January 2019

The Department of Health and Social Care has led on a project to provide a review of the main features of the NHS standard contract and how IFRS 15 thinking should be applied. Chapter 5 will be the most useful part of this, explaining key elements of the NHS standard contract. Please note that chapter 7 on disclosure requirements is very focused on the requirements of the standard, rather than considering materiality for the NHS. The disclosures in our TAC schedules are designed to meet the most relevant disclosure requirements of IFRS 15, as explained in the TAC Completion Instructions.

NHS England centralised inventory procurement – 26 February 2018

NHS England operates a national centralised system for purchasing high-cost medical devices and implants used in specialised services. These items are paid for by NHS England but physically held by providers until they are used. This stock is seen as being owned by NHS England and so is reflected in its Statement of Financial Position. NHS providers are reminded to ensure that they exclude this consignment stock from their inventory counts and it should not be included within providers’ balance sheets.