Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 8 November (HL2000), from which budget lines and areas NHS England provided the additional funding outlined; how much, if any, of the additional funding came from allocated capital budgets and what the slippage this has caused; and how much, if any, funding came from non-capital budget lines and what are the opportunity costs this has incurred.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have been no cuts to operational services to make the £2.3 billion of funding available. The majority came from central NHS England funding, held as part of the start year financial plans for this purpose. The remainder came from savings identified during the subsequent planning round, including taking a higher risk appetite on the extent to which underspends or savings would be identified during the course of the year. No funding came from savings on allocated capital budgets.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many mental health patients under 18 years of age were placed in a hospital or unit more than 10 miles from their residence in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, and (3) 2024 to date.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested, as data on active out of area placements is not categorised by age.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the impact of the national insurance rise for employers on service levels for (1) community pharmacies, (2) NHS dentists, (3) care homes, (4) social care, and (5) GP services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget. This enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer national insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025, with the Department setting out further details on allocation of funding for next year in due course.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people were detained under (1) section 37, (2) section 41, and (3) section 45A, of Part 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in the years (a) 2022, (b) 2023, and (c) 2024 to date.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983, by legal status and across all providers, each year from 2021/22 to 2023/24:
Legal status | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Section 37 with S41 restrictions | 45 | 43 | 46 |
Section 37 without S41 restrictions | 16 | 26 | 32 |
Section 45A | 5 | 3 | N/A |
Source: the Emergency Care Data Set and the Mental Health Data Set.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the additional cost to social care providers of (1) the increase to employer National Insurance contributions, and (2) the rise in the National Living Wage, announced in the Autumn Budget.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process.
In response to these pressures, the Government is providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care in 2025/26, as part of the broader estimated real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%. We will continue to work with the adult social care sector to understand the pressures on adult social care delivery and local authority budgets.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the cost to the NHS of (1) pay awards to resident doctors in this financial year, and (2) the increase to employer National Insurance contributions announced in the Autumn Budget.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is uplifting resident doctor pay scales for 2023-24 by an average of 4.05% on top of their existing pay award. This has an estimated cost impact of approximately £350 million per year.
On the second question, we have taken tough decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget, this enabled the SR settlement of £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department of Health and Social Care from 2023-24 outturn to 2025-26. The Employer National Insurance rise will be implemented April 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care will set out further details on allocation of funding for next year in due course, including through NHS Planning Guidance and the usual consultations.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional levels of service they anticipate will be achieved each year as a result of the additional £22.6 billion allocated to the NHS for day-to-day spending; and what reforms will be needed alongside this additional investment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The additional funding announced in the Budget will support the National Health Service in England to deliver an additional 40,000 elective appointments a week, and will make progress towards the commitment that patients should expect to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Performance expectations of NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) and trusts for the next financial year will be set out in the 2025/26 NHS planning guidance, at the earliest opportunity.
Investment alone won’t be enough to tackle the problems facing the NHS, and it must go hand in hand with fundamental reform. In the short term, patient care pathways will be reformed to ensure that patients are seen in settings which can deliver better patient experience for lower cost, enhancing patient choice and embedding best practice across the country. Looking to the future, we will publish a 10-Year Health Plan for the NHS in the spring which will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospitals to the community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any of the £22.6 billion allocated to the NHS for day-to-day spending in the Autumn Budget had already been allocated to NHS budgets before the announcement, and if so, how much.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised by HM Treasury's 2024 Autumn Budget, the health and social care budget will grow by £12.5 billion in 2024/25 and by £22.6 billion in 2025/26, compared to 2023/24. £7.6 billion of the 2024/25 growth was confirmed in 2024/25 Main Estimates in July 2024. This is the first time a budget for 2025/26 has been agreed with HM Treasury.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government over what timescale the delivery of an additional 40,000 elective NHS appointments per week will be achieved.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission, and we will deliver an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, which is equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. Further details regarding the additional appointments will be confirmed at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which integrated care boards are reporting a projected system-wide deficit for this financial year; and what is the projected deficit for each of them.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
31 out of the 42 integrated care boards agreed a deficit plan for the year for their overall systems with NHS England, which aggregated to a total planned overspend of £2.3 billion. NHS England has since provided additional funding to systems to match those plans, meaning there are currently no projected system-wide deficits based on those start year plans.