03 October 2025

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has significantly ramped up its investment in digital devices over the past three years, spending more than £3.6 million on laptops, mobile phones, and iPads to support remote working initiatives.

This increase in funding coincides with the government’s broader commitment to modernise the NHS and social care sectors, announced earlier this year during the Spending Review 2025. The UK government has pledged up to £10 billion by 2028-2029 to strengthen the healthcare workforce and accelerate digital transformation across health and social services.

Data obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and analysed by the Parliament think tank reveals that the DHSC’s total expenditure on electronic devices over the recent period amounted to £3.6 million. Of this, £3.1 million was spent on laptops, demonstrating a primary focus on portable computing devices. Mobile phones accounted for approximately £380,468, while iPads made up around £91,115 of the total expenditure.

The data shows a notable rise in DHSC’s annual spending on staff technology from 2022 to 2025. In 2022-2023, the department spent approximately £530,443, which increased significantly to a peak of nearly £2.85 million in 2023-2024.

This surge was primarily driven by a substantial increase in laptop purchases, which jumped from £500,414.08 to around £2.63 million year-on-year, before reducing to roughly £248,029 in 2024-2025. This pattern indicates a focused effort to modernise the digital tools available to health and social care staff, supporting the government’s wider digital health strategy.