Productivity crisis deepens as public sector continues to stutter November 3, 2025 Public sector productivity has dropped at its fastest rate in nearly three years, according to fresh official figures that lay bare the government’s multi-year struggle to revive the efficiency of the country’s creaking public services. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed total productivity at state-owned bodies fell by 0.7 per cent year [...]
Top court sides with HMRC as NHS hospitals liable for VAT on parking fees October 29, 2025 HMRC brought a case against a branch of NHS hospitals to the Supreme Court over whether VAT should have been charged on hospital car parking fees, and they’ve succeeded. Today marks the end of a five-year legal battle through each court stage over VAT on parking tickets used by patients, visitors, and hospital staff at [...]
Reeves’ LLP tax raid will trigger an exodus of family doctors October 24, 2025 Rachel Reeves plan for a tax hike on partnerships will decimate the GP workforce – and her government’s plans to turn the NHS around, says Katie Collin We’re now a month nearer to Reeves’ second Autumn Budget, and the speculation has come thick and fast. But of all the tax raids potentially on the horizon [...]
The company using AI to keep workers away from NHS waiting rooms October 16, 2025 Simplyhealth has pledged to be a solution to the UK’s productivity crisis, linking rising corporate sick leave, which costs Britain’s economy an estimated £150bn annually, to the NHS’s long backlog of treatments. The health insurer is turning to agentic AI to scale its services, hoping to keep employees healthy and at their desks rather than [...]
Ministers planning drug pricing shake-up to stem pharma exodus October 8, 2025 Ministers are drawing up a radical overhaul of NHS spending rules in a bid to shore up the UK’s world-leading life sciences industry after a string of pharma giants cancelled major UK investment projects. In what would amount to one of the largest shake-ups of NHS drug purchasing rules in recent history, the Prime Minister [...]
AI healthtech Cera can slash NHS emissions, new study finds October 3, 2025 An AI-powered model for home healthcare can reduce carbon emissions by around 15 times compared with hospital care, new research has found, adding an environmental dimension to the case for shifting more care out of hospitals and into the community. An independent third party analysis by IEP confirmed that that Healthtech company Cera’s home-first model [...]
Lime boss defends e-bikes amid ‘lime bike leg’ concerns September 27, 2025 Lime has become an unavoidable presence on London’s streets. Its distinctive green e-bikes are now the backbone of the capital’s micro-mobility network, with more than four million unique riders and tens of millions of trips recorded. The company has added 900 new parking bays this year alone as part of a “London Action Plan” designed [...]
UK launches national commission to fast-track AI in the NHS September 26, 2025 The UK government has established a national commission to accelerate the safe introduction of AI across the NHS. The panel, which brings together experts from big techs, researchers, and clinicians, will advise the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on a new regulatory framework for AI in healthcare, set to be published next year. [...]
‘Some of the benefits are fairly boring, but they save lives’: AI chief on transforming the NHS September 26, 2025 AI in healthcare might spark visions of robotic doctors and futuristic diagnostics. But Robbie Jerrom, senior principal technologist for AI at Red Hat, insists the real gains lie in the mundane systems that make the NHS run more efficiently. “Prioritising summarising email requests or patient call logs… they’re not very exciting, but they consume a [...]
Backlash grows as Reeves eyes VAT raid on cabs September 21, 2025 Rachel Reeves is facing a mounting backlash over plans to impose VAT on taxi fares, with campaigners warning the move will hammer rural residents, make it harder for disabled people to attend medical appointments, and heap pressure on the NHS budget. The chancellor is weighing proposals to introduce a 20 per cent levy on all [...]