The National Cost Collection publication comprises aggregated costs (the average unit cost of providing defined services to NHS patients in England) and patient-level costs/PLICS (a cost based on the specific interactions a patient has, and the events related to their healthcare activity).

NHS providers submit costs annually. These costs are used to inform a number of work streams including the PLICS dashboards, the Model Health System, the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme and NHS Payment Scheme prices. They are a key source of information about the cost of NHS services.

2022/23 National Cost Collection data

Unfortunately, due to an issue with the data in the 2022/23 National Cost Collection (NCC), we have had to temporarily remove all the NCC files from both the NHS England website and the FutureNHS costing workspace. NHS England are currently working to understand the cause of the data discrepancies and to determine the most effective way to resolve them. We will resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We will issue communications when we have a timeframe for republishing the data, but in the meantime if you have any queries please contact us at costing@england.nhs.uk.

Archived cost collections

• 2021/22 National Cost Collection Data Publication
• 2020/21 National Cost Collection Data Publication
• 2019/20 National Cost Collection Data Publication
• 2018/19 National Cost Collection Data Publication

You can also access reference costs for the financial years 2017/18 and 2016/17 on the page Archived Reference Costs, along with a link to earlier cost collections on the Department of Health website.

Help and support

If you have any queries on this project or costing in general please email costing@england.nhs.uk