| Reference | FOI 2025/1358 |
|---|---|
| Description | Council debt |
| Date Requested | 04/09/2025 |
| Date Replied | 01/10/2025 |
| Category | Finance |
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:
1. The total amount of money owed by your Integrated Care Board (ICB) to your council up to the end of the 2024–25 financial year.
2. A breakdown of this figure, if available, showing:
a. Amounts owed by service area (e.g. adult social care, public health, children’s services, other)
b. Amounts owed by invoice type (e.g. charges for joint-funded placements, Section 75 agreements, continuing healthcare contributions, or other categories your council uses).
NHS Greater Manchester ICB’s (NHS GM) commissioning responsibility covers the patients who are registered with GPs within one of the 10 Local Authority Areas of Greater Manchester. The below figures represent values owed to each Local Authority as at 31 March 2025. The response only considers invoices which had bene issued by each of the local authorities, which may be subject to validation, and does not include amounts which may have been owed to Councils, but not yet invoiced as at the balance sheet date.
1. The amount invoiced by each Council but unpaid as at 31 March 2025 is included in the table below. It should be noted that the amount unpaid reflects the timing of invoices issued by the local authority, and NHS GM’s commitment to complying with the Better Payment Practice Code (BPPC), aiming to pay 95% of all invoices (by both volume of invoices and value of invoices) within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice.
| Local Authority | Value of invoices outstanding at 31/3/25 (£) |
| Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council | 5,016,835.58 |
| Bury Metropolitan Borough Council | 3,911,902.98 |
| Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council | 4,067,669.05 |
| Manchester City Council | 10,440,751.54 |
| Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council | 4,179,493.58 |
| Salford City Council | 6,102,202.07 |
| Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council | 2,602,679.32 |
| Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council | 3,388,860.52 |
| Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council | 4,991,838.02 |
| Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council | 3,887,285.43 |
| Total | 48,589,518.09 |
2. a. The classifications requested in question 2a) reflect the classifications which would have been applied by the Local Authority. As such, NHS GM does not hold the data in respect of the classification which may have been applied by the counterparty, as this information is not recorded.
2.b. The information requested in question 2b) specifically asks for the value of invoices outstanding in line with the classification that our Council uses. As with question 2a) above, this information is not held by NHS GM, as NHS GM is not aware of the classifications applied by each of the Councils. The nature of the information held is not in a format which would enable to identify a classification of the contents of the invoice. This is because not all invoices are coded in a manner which enables this classification, and invoices may contain charges for more than one type of service.
