Weekly Espresso
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said overall government department spending will increase by 2.3% a year in real terms.
Health is arguably the biggest winner of this Spending Review. The department will receive almost £30bn extra a year towards it budget. £10bn of that has been earmarked for technology and digital transformation. The effective 3% rise is much lower than the funding increases during the last time Labour were in power and there are question marks over whether it’s enough to tackle backlogs and cover pay rises for doctors and nurses…