Health: Public Health Grant
Debate between Baroness Manzoor and Lord Laming
Baroness Manzoor
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, is right: spending on sexual health in 2017-18 has reduced by 4.3% from 2016-17. However, a reduction in spend does not necessarily mean a deterioration in outcomes. For example, the number of hospital admissions for drug-related mental health and behavioural disorders has dropped 16% since 2015-16. The Green Paper on prevention will set out further plans in much more detail, considering the best available evidence.
Lord Laming
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is actually not in the interests of the NHS to cut local authority public health services? Local authorities should be celebrated for what they are doing in many different fields, not least in supporting charitable bodies that are doing so much, in addition to what we have all heard of, by supporting people who are socially isolated and depressed and would otherwise be admitted to hospital.
Baroness Manzoor
My Lords, local authorities and charities are doing an excellent job and I commend the work they are doing, but the Government are investing £16 billion during the current spending review period on the provision of local authority public health services. That is on top of funding for Public Health England and what the NHS itself spends, which includes over £1 billion on immunisation and screening programmes and £340 million in 2016-17 on vaccine stocks. I agree that local authorities do a great job in challenging times.