Public service productivity grew 0.3% in the year to June 2026, ONS estimates

Public services across the UK delivered 0.3% more output for each unit of staff, goods and services they used in the year to June 2026 than in the previous year, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.

The measure compares what public services produce with what goes into them. Over the four quarters to June, output grew 2.0% and inputs 1.6%. The rate of productivity growth was unchanged on the previous quarter, but it has slowed from 1.3% in the year to September 2025 and is at its lowest since the year to September 2024.

Healthcare

Healthcare makes up almost 40% of all public service expenditure, the largest share of any service. Its productivity grew 0.7% in the year to June 2026, with output up 2.2% against a 1.5% rise in inputs. That is an improvement on 0.6% in the year to March, a figure itself revised up from 0.4%, though still well short of the 2.9% recorded in the year to June 2025.

Revisions to 2024 and 2025

The ONS has updated its estimates to bring them into line with the 2026 Blue Book, the annual national accounts published on 30 October, and has changed how it adjusts for price changes when social protection services are bought from independent providers. The result is a weaker picture for 2025 overall and a stronger one for health.

Total public service productivity is now estimated to have grown 0.7% in 2024, unchanged, and 0.5% in 2025, down from the 0.9% published in August. That leaves productivity in 2025 2.9% below its 2019 level, against 2.5% below in the earlier estimate. Healthcare productivity is put at 1.5% growth in 2024 and 1.1% in 2025, and 5.3% below 2019. The 2024 health figure was revised up from 1.1%, mainly because of higher healthcare output in the new national accounts data.

For all public services, inputs growth in 2025 was revised from 0.7% to 1.7%, mostly because of higher estimated spending on publicly funded services delivered by independent providers in social protection and health. Output growth was revised up by less, from 1.7% to 2.3%.

The ONS said total productivity had now grown for five years in a row since the sharp fall in 2020. The annual rates for 2024 and 2025 are close to the 0.7% average in the decade to 2019. Every service increased its output in 2025 apart from education, which fell slightly.

Statistics in development

The quarterly figures, and the annual figures for 2024 and 2025 built from them, are official statistics in development and the ONS expects them to be revised. The accredited annual series currently runs only to 2023. The statistics office also cautions against setting its healthcare measure directly against NHS England's own productivity figures, which cover only NHS secondary care trusts in England and use different data and methods.

The next quarterly release is due in February 2027.