Speaking to the Health and Social Care Committee, Streeting said his decision to reverse a previous pledge not to reorganise the NHS was borne out of ‘experience in office'.

Streeting added: ‘I was struck by the extent of duplication that exists between the Department and the NHS England.

‘I was taken aback by the extent to which policy and strategy which I should think have always sat with the Department and had assumed had always sat with the Department had become part and parcel of life over at NHS England.'

The secretary of state said there were ‘too many checkers and not enough doers' in the system, adding he was creating ‘the biggest devolution of power in the history of the NHS'.

Asked why he had chosen now to announce the abolition, Streeting said: ‘It does take time and we don't have time to waste.'

When asked for a deadline for when the process would be completed, the secretary of state said ‘up to two years'.

‘I don't have time to waste,' Streeting said.

‘If we can achieve hundreds of millions of pounds of savings every year – foot down on the accelerator.'

Streeting said he wanted to ‘build a new organisation with a new culture'.

When asked to comment on reports that the cost of redundancies could amount to £1bn, Streeting said it was not 'an unreasonable ballpark figure' adding: 'We will more than pay for that in terms of the savings that are achieved year on year.'