The NHS is around £650m off plan after the first six months of the current financial year, the Public Accounts Committee was told today.

Giving evidence to the committee this afternoon, Julian Kelly, chief financial officer of NHS England, said ‘people are still forecasting to get back to plan'.

Kelly added: ‘We are working with every system across the country to see how close to those plans we can actually get. I think there is a fair risk that we will not hit plan though.'

The chief financial officer said that although the current position was ‘not where we want it to be, it is better than last year'.

Kelly said the deficit was ‘quite small' in percentage terms at 0.7% of current spend but a ‘big number' in cash terms.

Earlier, NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard cited Covid as a major factor when asked why it has been so difficult for NHS systems to break even in recent years.

‘Covid was a massive shock to the NHS not just in relation to finance but in so many other ways as well,' Pritchard said.

The chief executive said the NHS was making progress on productivity, waiting times and urgent and emergency care but had ‘much further to go'.

Pritchard also cited rising inflation, industrial action and a lack of investment in the NHS capital estate as factors impacting financial performance.