NHS spends £850k on London-Leeds staff train travel

NHS spends £850k on London-Leeds staff train travel
Credit: iStock

UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – NHS England spent £850k on trains between London and Leeds in 2023–24, raising criticism over rising costs despite remote work options.

As reported by The Telegraph, Britain’s top quango spends around £850,000 each year on rail travel for employees, funded by taxpayers.

What did Freedom of Information reveal about NHS train costs?

NHS England is spending more than £15,000 a week on train fares for staff travelling between its London and Leeds offices.

Newly published NHS data shows that staff train travel between cities cost nearly £850,000 last year, a 70% increase from the previous year.

Despite the growing shift toward remote work and video conferencing, NHS England continued to send staff on regular 2.5-hour train trips between London and Leeds for meetings and conferences.

A single return train ticket costing £432.50 was approved by NHS management and paid for using public money.

Freedom of Information records reveal NHS England staff made more than 5,300 trips between Leeds and London last year, averaging over 100 journeys a week, with each ticket costing more than £150.

Train spending by the NHS surged by nearly 70% in the past year, rising from £4.7 million to £7.9 million. NHS England’s total travel spending neared £10 million, with £1.5 million spent solely on reimbursing staff for driving expenses.

What did the TaxPayers’ Alliance say about the NHS’s £15K-a-week train spend?

John O’Connell, of the lobby group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated,

“It’s staggering that an NHS quango is blowing more than £15,000 a week on train tickets while ordinary Britons are being told to tighten their belts.”

He added,

“With remote working and video calls now the norm, there’s no excuse for this level of face-to-face travel, especially at such eye-watering prices. Ministers must ensure these bloated expenses are brought firmly under control.”

What did NHS England say about staff travel spending?

An NHS England spokesman stated,

“Given that our staff run a national health service, travel between sites is necessary to ensure effective co-ordination, but this should only be undertaken in line with our strict internal processes and government guidance.”

They added,

“The number of flights taken by staff has almost halved in 2024-25 compared to 2023-24 following the introduction of the Flight Approval Panel, so that we continue to ensure every penny of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.”

What did Wes Streeting say about NHS bureaucracy?

The Government moved to scrap NHS England earlier this year, claiming the shake-up would cut red tape and redirect millions to frontline services strained by increasing demand.

The Health Secretary said NHS England’s staff and admin budget had reached £2 billion, warning that taxpayers were “paying more, but getting less in return.”

The process may take over two years, and many staff are expected to stay on in other NHS roles.

NHS staff

  • 1.5 million employees – The NHS in England employs over 1.5 million people, making it one of the largest employers in the world 1012.
  • 147,300 doctors – There are nearly 150,000 doctors, but England still has fewer per capita (3.2 per 1,000 people) than the EU average (3.9) 512.
  • 100,000+ vacancies – The NHS faces over 100,000 job vacancies, including 7,700 doctor posts and 25,600 nursing roles 912.
  • 42% stressed at work – Over 40% of medical staff report work-related stress, with 30% feeling burnt out due to heavy workloads

Daniele Naddei

Daniele Naddei is a journalist at Parliament News covering European affairs, was born in Naples on April 8, 1991. He also serves as the Director of the CentroSud24 newspaper. During the period from 2010 to 2013, Naddei completed an internship at the esteemed local radio station Radio Club 91. Subsequently, he became the author of a weekly magazine published by the Italian Volleyball Federation of Campania (FIPAV Campania), which led to his registration in the professional order of Journalists of Campania in early 2014, listed under publicists. From 2013 to 2018, he worked as a freelance photojournalist and cameraman for external services for Rai and various local entities, including TeleCapri, CapriEvent, and TLA. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, Naddei collaborated full-time with various newspapers in Campania, both in print and online. During this period, he also resumed his role as Editor-in-Chief at Radio Club 91.
Naddei is actively involved as a press officer for several companies and is responsible for editing cultural and social events in the city through his association with the Medea Fattoria Sociale. This experience continued until 2021. Throughout these years, he hosted or collaborated on football sports programs for various local broadcasters, including TLA, TvLuna, TeleCapri, Radio Stonata, Radio Amore, and Radio Antenna Uno.
From 2016 to 2018, Naddei was employed as an editor at newspapers of national interest within the Il24.it circuit, including Internazionale24, Salute24, and OggiScuola. Since 2019, Naddei has been one of the creators of the Rabona television program "Calcio è Passione," which has been broadcast on TeleCapri Sport since 2023.