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Building an NHS fit for the future? Understanding the NHS Modernisation Bill and what it means for the life sciences industry

The Government’s recently announced NHS Modernisation Bill represents one of the most consequential attempts to reshape the health service in over a decade.

At its core, the Bill sets out to legislate for the abolition of NHS England and the transfer of its functions to the Department of Health and Social Care. It will also mandate the establishment of a Single Patient Record to consolidate all health data under one integrated system.

The direction signals a reset in how decisions are made in the NHS, how data is used and accessed, and how value is assessed across the healthcare system.

This will significantly redefine how the pharmaceutical industry engages and partners with the NHS, but it is also an opportunity for industry to be involved in the debates and processes that will shape the Bill’s future.

The transferring of powers to the Department of Health and Social Care, with new powers reserved for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, represents a fundamental shift in where decision-making takes place. It will bring the NHS closer to political control, with key decisions becoming more directly shaped by the political cycle.

This could make decision-making less predictable and lead to increased scrutiny over areas such as medicines, affordability and the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to deliver value for money.

The Bill also revises the role of Integrated Care Boards to focus on strategic commissioning and planning most local NHS services, including specialised services and delegated vaccination services. The broader shift towards neighbourhood health signals a stronger role for organisations at this level, including local authorities and community providers such as community pharmacies.

The decision to mandate a Single Patient Record has the potential to reshape how evidence, including real-world data, is generated and used to support system improvement, patient access and outcomes. For the life sciences sector, this could affect how research is undertaken within the NHS and how evidence is generated for new innovations.

In its current form, the Bill will change how the life sciences sector engages with the NHS, with a stronger focus on Government-facing relationships for national decision-making and local system-level relationships for delivery. However, the composition of every Bill changes across its Parliamentary journey, and there is now an important opportunity to shape these processes.

On paper, the Bill points towards a more streamlined system with fewer layers of bureaucracy. In reality, what it is setting out to achieve is far more complex and will require careful implementation.

The abolition of NHS England is significant, and expressing this in legislation while managing operational risks is only the first hurdle. The political context is also far from stable, with a new Health Secretary, James Murray MP, inheriting the Bill at a critical time and raising questions over whether it can be delivered by April 2027.

The Bill is likely to attract significant interest from a wide range of stakeholders. Few areas of legislation affect as many people as directly as the NHS. Patients, clinicians, health leaders, regulators, taxpayers, industry stakeholders, MPs and peers all have a tangible interest in how services are funded, structured and governed.

The introduction of a Single Patient Record could further broaden interest, particularly among those concerned with data protection and patient ownership.

This level of engagement is not unusual. Previous health bills have shown how quickly legislation can evolve as competing priorities are negotiated.

For example, while the initial intent of the 2022 Health and Social Care Act was to legislate for Integrated Care Boards, the final version included topics beyond this scope, such as a ban on virginity testing and hymenoplasty and the inclusion of mental health spending duties.

The life sciences sector now has a timely opportunity to ensure key priorities are considered in the amendment phases. With the first reading complete, stakeholders are engaging directly with Members of Parliament and the House of Lords, where peers in particular will have more power than usual to scrutinise the Bill and push through amendments.

It will be important to consider the operational risks that could affect the Bill’s contents. The tight time frame may mean the Government relies on secondary legislation to deliver more substantive changes after the Bill passes.

Statutory Instruments are the most common form of secondary legislation, and the Government could use these to make changes once the Bill becomes law.
 
Whilst this could speed up the Bill’s passage, it also creates more ambiguity and fewer opportunities for formal consultation, including for industry.

There is also a risk that key functions, such as oversight of national prevention programmes and initiatives funded through specialised commissioning, become diluted or fall out of the Bill altogether.

This is where targeted engagement with those scrutinising the Bill will be vital, particularly with peers who will be looking to gain concessions.

This Bill should be seen as a pivotal moment to rethink how decisions are made and how care is delivered to improve access and outcomes.

Crucially, the current iteration is unlikely to be the final version, making it essential for the pharmaceutical industry to demonstrate early and proactively how it can act as a genuine partner in delivery.