The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group has said it recorded a small in-year budget surplus last year.

But the NHS body, which is responsible for planning and commissioning healthcare services in the area, also stressed it still has a cumulative deficit of £133m and “will continue to face significant financial challenges in the future”.

The Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) accounts show it spent £1.55bn in the financial year 2020/21.

The figure is considerably higher than previous years, but the CCG said that, owing to changes in the way NHS care was funded and commissioned during the early phases of the pandemic, it is not possible to meaningfully compare it with headline figures from previous years.

The recorded total spend in the 2019/20 financial year was £1.33bn, and pre-pandemic the expected allocation for next year was about £2m more, according to a CCG report.

The total in-year deficit recorded in 2019/20 was about £75m.

The CCG said the last time it recorded an in-year surplus was 2018/19.

A CCG spokesperson said: “The CCG reported a small surplus of £137,000 for 2020/21, this was in part due to a change in NHS funding to support the pandemic response. However, the CCG still has a cumulative deficit of £133m and will continue to face significant financial challenges in the future.”

The CCG suspended some specialist fertility services in 2017, including IVF. It will review whether or not to reinstate such services next month after recording an in-year surplus.