Government to invest up to £10bn to bring NHS ‘into the digital age’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the government will invest up to £10bn in NHS tech “to bring our analogue health system into the digital age”, as part of the latest spending review. 

The funding boost is part of a £29bn real terms increase in annual NHS day-to-day spending from 2023-2024 to 2028-2029, which the government said in a press release will get the health service “back on its feet and fit for the future”.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 11 June 2025, Reeves said that the government is making a “record” cash investment into the NHS, “increasing real-terms, day-to-day spending by 3% per year for every single year of this spending review”.

She added that the NHS, which she described as “our most treasured public service”, must be a publicly funded health service, free at the point of use, rather than an insurance-based model.

The ‘Spending Review 2025 document‘ says that the £10bn investment in NHS technology and digital transformation by 2028‑29, is an almost 50% increase from 2025-26.

It adds that the funding will begin “to turn the NHS App into the digital front door to the NHS, enabling patients to manage medicines and prescriptions, receive NHS communications securely and increase their access to medical services such as tests directly, freeing up millions of appointments.”

The investment will also be used to deliver “a single patient record, giving patients a unified view of their medical history and enabling two-way communication and active management of their healthcare”.

The spending review also announced a £2.3bn real terms increase in the Department of Health and Social Care’s annual capital budgets from 2023‑24 to 2029‑30 to invest in the NHS, including in new technology, hospitals and primary care.

Reeves previously pledged to invest more than £2bn in NHS technology and digital in the Autumn Budget, announced in October 2024.

In the Spring Budget announcement on 26 March 2025, Reeves said that the government would bring forward £3.25bn of investment “to deliver the reforms that our public services need through a new Transformation Fund”.

Speaking whilst outlining the spending review, Reeves said: “At the budget I took the decisions necessary to provide an immediate injection of funding to get the NHS back on its feet and I commend my right honourable friend the health secretary for all the progress that he has already made.”

Commenting on the spending review, Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “Despite the tough economic climate, the government has prioritised health services by continuing to increase spending on the NHS for the rest of this parliament.

“A 2.8% average increase in total health department spending – 3% for day-to-day NHS spending – will have been hard-fought for in the spending round negotiations, despite still being lower than the historical average the NHS has received over recent years.

“A key challenge now will be for NHS to decide how it can deliver most value from the money that has been allocated.”

An analysis commissioned by The Health Foundation, published in May 2025, estimated that the government would need to spend £21bn over the next five years to digitise health and care services.