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ICB Expenditure  ·  Status: AWAITING RESPONSE  ·  Statutory deadline 3 August 2026
ICB Expenditure (ref awaited) NHS Devon ICB
AWAITING RESPONSE

Expenditure Relating to the Torbay and South Devon Catchment, and Payments to the Three Acute Trusts

Submitted: 5 July 2026 (two requests, 23:26 and 23:36) | Statutory deadline: 3 August 2026 | No acknowledgement received
What Was Asked: Two Freedom of Information requests were sent to NHS Devon Integrated Care Board on the evening of 5 July 2026, ten minutes apart. They approach the same subject from two directions. The first asks what the ICB spends on the Torbay and South Devon population and whether it has modelled the cost of moving acute services out of Torbay Hospital. The second asks for every individual payment made to the three acute trusts in Devon, and for details of any funding or commissioning that has been redirected away from Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.
Why This Matters: The public has been repeatedly assured that proposed service changes are intended to improve care and efficiency. No figures have been published to support that. The ICB's own transparency data shows expenditure over £25,000 amounting to roughly £102 million in March 2026 alone, across NHS providers, independent providers, GP practices, local authorities and other organisations. If acute services move from Torbay to Exeter, the costs do not disappear; they reappear as community provision, patient transport, ambulance activity, Continuing Healthcare and pressure on the social care interface. Either the ICB has modelled those costs, in which case the modelling should be public, or it has not, in which case the efficiency case has not been made. The second request goes further: a payment-level record would show whether funding has already begun moving from Torbay and South Devon to Royal Devon or Plymouth, ahead of any public consultation.

Sent to: NHS Devon Integrated Care Board (Chief Executive and executive office), with wide distribution to members of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee (Layla Moran MP, Andrew George MP, Andy Burnham MP, Danny Beales MP, Beccy Cooper MP, Josh Fenton-Glynn MP, Paulette Hamilton MP, Joe Robertson MP, Greg Stafford MP) and Heart Campaign committee members including Dr Phil Keeling and Sally Allen-Gerard.

From: Susie Colley (chair@tqcc.co.uk)
To: NHS Devon ICB executive office
CC: Members of the Health and Social Care Committee and Heart Campaign committee members

Good evening

Having reviewed NHS Devon Integrated Care Board's published expenditure over £25,000, I note that the expenditure for March 2026 alone amounts to approximately £102 million, comprising payments across NHS providers, independent providers, GP practices, local authorities and numerous other organisations.

In the interests of transparency and public accountability, I would be grateful if you would provide the following information.

1. Expenditure relating to the Torbay and South Devon catchment

For the financial year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, a detailed breakdown of all expenditure incurred by NHS Devon ICB relating to the Torbay and South Devon population, including but not limited to acute hospital services, community services, mental health services, Continuing Healthcare, primary care, independent sector providers, ambulance services, prescribing costs, diagnostic services and any other commissioned healthcare, identifying each provider, the total annual payment made and the category of expenditure.

2. Payments to Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

The total amount paid to the Trust during 2025/26, a monthly breakdown of those payments, and details of any additional, non-recurrent or emergency funding allocated during the year.

3. Community expenditure

Total expenditure on community-based healthcare within the Torbay and South Devon locality during the same period, broken down by service and provider.

4. Financial modelling

Whether the ICB has undertaken any financial modelling or business case assessing the impact on healthcare expenditure should acute services currently provided at Torbay Hospital be relocated, centralised or transferred elsewhere. If so: the modelling, the assumptions used, and projected changes in expenditure on community services, patient transport costs, ambulance activity, Continuing Healthcare expenditure and social care interface costs.

5. Business cases

Copies of any business cases, financial appraisals, options appraisals, value-for-money assessments and cost-benefit analyses prepared during the last three years relating to the future configuration of services provided from Torbay Hospital.

6. Equality and rural impact

Copies of any Equality Impact Assessments, Health Inequality Assessments, Rural Impact Assessments or Travel Impact Assessments undertaken in connection with any proposals affecting services provided from Torbay Hospital.

7. Cost comparison

Whether the ICB has compared maintaining existing acute services at Torbay Hospital against providing equivalent healthcare through increased community provision and treatment at alternative hospitals, and if so, all reports, financial analyses and supporting documents.

The public has been repeatedly assured that proposed service changes are intended to improve care and efficiency. Given the substantial sums of public money involved, disclosure of the requested information will assist public understanding of the financial implications of any future service reconfiguration.

Kindest regards

Susie Colley
Chair of the Torquay Chamber of Commerce and the Heart Campaign

From: Susie Colley (chair@tqcc.co.uk)
To: NHS Devon ICB Chief Executive
CC: Members of the Health and Social Care Committee and Heart Campaign committee members

Dear Chief Executive,

For the financial year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, details of every payment made by NHS Devon Integrated Care Board to Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.

For each payment:

  1. Date of payment.
  2. Amount paid.
  3. Financial ledger code.
  4. Cost centre or budget.
  5. Description of the expenditure.
  6. Service or activity funded.
  7. Whether the payment relates to a block contract, activity-based payment, non-contract activity, capital funding, transformation funding, service development, deficit support, emergency funding, or any other category.
  8. Whether the payment was recurrent or non-recurrent.
  9. The contractual or legal basis under which the payment was made.
  10. Whether the payment relates to patients resident within the Torbay and South Devon catchment.

In addition:

  • The total annual value paid to each Trust, and a monthly summary of payments to each.
  • Copies of any funding agreements, financial schedules or contract summaries supporting those payments, where disclosure is not exempt under the Act.
  • Details of any additional allocations, brokerage, financial support, emergency funding or in-year adjustments made during 2025/26.
  • Details of any funding transferred from Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to either Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust or University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust during the financial year, including the reason for the transfer.
  • Details of any commissioning changes during 2025/26 that resulted in services or funding being redirected from Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to another provider.

If any part of this request exceeds the appropriate cost limit, please treat it as a request for advice and assistance under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act and advise how the request may be refined rather than refusing it in its entirety. If any information is withheld, please specify the exemption or exemptions relied upon and explain why they apply.

Yours faithfully,

Susie Colley
Chair of the Torquay Chamber of Commerce and the Heart Campaign

The two questions these requests are designed to settle:

  1. Has the efficiency case ever been costed? If acute services move out of Torbay, the ICB should be able to show what it expects to spend instead, on community care, transport, ambulances, Continuing Healthcare and the social care interface. Either that modelling exists and can be published, or the efficiency claim rests on nothing.
  2. Has money already started moving? A payment-level record of what the ICB has paid to the three acute trusts, together with any funding transfers and commissioning changes, would show whether resources are being redirected from Torbay and South Devon to Royal Devon or Plymouth ahead of any public consultation.

Related material on the tracker:

  • The One Devon Payroll Transfer thread records a corporate function moving from Torbay and South Devon to Royal Devon, announced on the staff intranet after it had taken effect.
  • The Gadeon House Clarification thread records the relocation of routine cellular pathology to Exeter and cytology to Royal Devon.
  • The TSD10523 FOI seeks a ten-year account of services reduced, relocated, outsourced or withdrawn from Torbay Hospital.
  • The PM & Health Select Committee thread sets out the cumulative-change argument: that individually small changes may together amount to a substantial variation in services requiring statutory consultation under the NHS Act 2006. Financial transfers, if they are occurring, form part of that pattern.
  • The RDF3768-25 FOI, in which Royal Devon declined to answer questions about its own efficiency and capacity and redirected the campaign to the ICB. These requests now put comparable questions to the ICB directly.

Status

Both requests were submitted on 5 July 2026. The statutory 20 working day deadline falls on 3 August 2026. No acknowledgement or reference number has yet been received from NHS Devon ICB. The second request pre-emptively invokes Section 16 of the Act, asking the ICB to advise on how the request might be refined should any part exceed the appropriate cost limit, rather than refusing it outright on cost grounds. Any refusal, cost-limit response or claim that the information is not held will be recorded here and assessed, as will any disclosure of funding transfers or commissioning changes affecting Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.

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