UKHSA Advisory Board: Finance Report
Updated 9 May 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukhsa-advisory-board-agenda/ukhsa-advisory-board-finance-report
Date: 8 May 2024
Sponsor: Andrew Sanderson
1. Purpose of the paper
This paper gives an overview of the UK Health Security Agency’s finances as at the end of Financial Year 2023-24 (the end of March 2024).
2. Recommendations
The Advisory Board is asked to note UKHSA’s financial position.
3. Summary of 2023-24 financial performance (at end of March)
The table below shows resource and capital departmental expenditure limits (RDEL and CDEL) for 2023 to 2024, split by the parts of:
- core agency costs
- COVID-19
- non-COVID-19 vaccines and countermeasures and the Covid Vaccine Unit (CVU)
It shows the provisional outturn for the 12 months April 23 to March 24.
Table 1. Month 12 resource departmental expenditure limits (RDEL) and capital departmental expenditure limits (CDEL)
| Budget | Actual | Variance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core RDEL | 392,423 | 393,508 | (1,085) |
| COVID RDEL | 229,656 | 195,942 | 33,714 |
| ODA RDEL | 12,331 | 14,985 | (2,654) |
| CVU RDEL | 1,071,578 | 967,537 | 104,041 |
| VCR RDEL | 596,608 | 605,236 | (8,628) |
| Core CDEL | 86,294 | 102,882 | (16,588) |
| COVID CDEL | (16,800) | (18,112) | 1,312 |
| CVU CDEL | (85,268) | (214,483) | 129,215 |
| VCR CDEL | 22,551 | 22,198 | 353 |
| UKHSA total resource | 2,302,596 | 2,177,208 | 125,388 |
| UKHSA total capital | 6,777 | (107,515) | 114,292 |
| UKHSA total | 2,309,373 | 2,069,693 | 239,380 |
The figures above are the provisional position prior to review before submitting for audit. Overall resource and capital controls have not been exceeded at a total level. The Core resource position includes several technical year-end accounting adjustments which are complicated to forecast.
The provisional figures include prior period adjustments which increase the outturn and will score against 2023-24 budgets at a group level. These are adjustments which were included in UKHSA 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts but were too late, or not considered material, to include in DHSC group accounts. The adjustments included in the provisional resource outturn are increases of £9.9million Core, £10.5million Covid and £71.5million Covid Vaccine Unit.
3.1 Core resource and capital budget
The monthly run rate trajectory through the year suggested a full year underspend. However, plans in the final quarter of the year to increase spend including Genomics and Cyber Security were delivered. In addition, there has been a revaluation exercise on the book value of fixed assets held at the end of March which has increased resource spend.
UKHSA is measured on forecast accuracy based on the HM Treasury metric of 1% target variance to the month six forecast. The provisional outturn on core resource shows a 1.2% overspend to the month six forecast.
The Core capital outturn includes a pressure for the year as £15million of capital spend through the new “IFRS 16” lease accounting standard has been included. Capital spend from major projects has been in line with profiles of spend in previous years, with the majority of spend in the final quarter.
3.2 Covid resource and capital budget
The provisional outturn shows an underspend (excluding the PPA adjustment), as demand has been lower than originally planned and we have prioritised bringing down spending during this final year of Covid funding. In the final quarter there has been a drive to maximise the costs incurred into 2023-24 and accelerating the disposals programme to exit existing infrastructure. The exceptional costs of exiting Rosalind Franklin Laboratory is included in the 2023-24 outturn at £14million. The Covid budget in total has been successfully managed down from £15bn in 2021-22 to nil for 2024-25.
3.3 Covid Vaccine Unit resource and capital budget
The budget was to include additional funding from the Treasury Reserve. The increased budget is based on the resource forecast produced at month eight. The provisional underspend is driven by the NHSE decision to reduce stock build up for the Spring campaign. Stock that was anticipated to leave the warehouse for the Spring Campaign during quarter four will now leave in quarter one of 2024-25.
The capital credit is generated by a refund and purchases from contracts agreed in the previous financial year and delivered in 2023-24.
3.4 Vaccines and countermeasures resource and capital budget
This budget is ring-fenced by DHSC and is currently managed on the basis that UKHSA should neither gain nor lose.
3.5 Business planning
As part of the business planning process UKHSA has had to make challenging decisions such as stopping and scaling back activity. Some previously covid funded activity key to long-term delivery will be funded from core budgets on an ongoing basis. Whilst a variety of activities will support pandemic preparedness specific activities such as resilience laboratories etc. would require new funding and has formed part of wider ministerial advice.
4. Annual Accounts 2023-24
There has been good progress in the accounts production including the development of the detailed production plan agreed with National Audit Office (NAO) to lay accounts in November. Key technical accounting papers have been submitted to NAO (Covid Vaccine Unit (CVU), Culture collections, Harlow Programme). Additional CVU sessions have been arranged with NAO aiming at ensuring agreed accounting treatment.
An early warning escalation route has been developed with NAO, which includes weekly and monthly contact points to address emerging concerns and a progress tracker to identify slippage and issues.
Andrew Sanderson
Chief Financial Officer
May 2024