Our commissioning budget for 2022/23, excluding drawdown of previous years’ surpluses, is £153 billion. We are responsible for using this money wisely, fairly and transparently to secure the best possible outcomes for both patients and the taxpayer.

We allocate most of this funding – £107.8 billion – for commissioning local health services. A further £29.8 billion is spent on directly commissioning services including some primary care services, specialised services and public health. The remaining funds are allocated to the delivery of service development and improvement programmes, in line with our corporate priorities, and NHS England’s core administration and programme costs.

Figure 1 below, shows how we distribute our mandate funding.

Mandate funding – accessible text

• Integrated care boards (ICBs) £107.8 billion
• Direct commissioning £29.8 billion
• Service development fund £3.8 billion
• NHS England central admin and programme £3.2 billion
• Elective services recovery fund £2.3 billion
• Other system funding £6.1 billion (other system funding includes £3.4 billion for increased employer pension contributions).

The central administration budget for NHS England in 2022/23 has been set at £608 million. Our programme costs are focused on the delivery of our corporate priorities and this year we have a funding envelope of £2.5 billion. Approximately £0.13 billion is allocated to pass-through costs to fund clinical excellence awards. This leaves £2.4 billion (excluding £0.1 billion depreciation) for direct investment by NHS England to deliver on the commitments outlined in this business plan.

Figure 2: 2022/23 NHS England central admin and programme funding (£3.158 million)

Central admin and programme funding (£3,158 million) – accessible text

• Central programme £1729 million
• Central admin £608 million
• Central vaccination programme £459 million
• Supply chain coordination ltd (SCCL) £232 million
• Clinical excellence awards £130 million

Note: This funding includes £3.4 billion for employer pension contributions.

You can download a PDF version of our 2022/23 business plan here