Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much each clinical commissioning group was estimated to be (a) overspending or (b) underspending over on underspending prior to the introduction of the capped expenditure process.

The National Health Service has set out its own plan to maximise spending within funding limits, and deliver financial balance and sustainability. As set out in the Spending Review 2015, NHS funding will increase by £8 billion in real terms by 2020-21, compared to 2015-16. In this year alone, real terms NHS funding is £1.7 billion higher than last year and £5 billion higher than it was in 2015-16.

As with all public services, local NHS areas need to live within the budget agreed – otherwise they effectively take up resources that could be spent on general practitioners, mental health care, and cancer treatment. As part of their financial planning, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been running a process to look at how a small number of areas could do more to balance their financial plans, as many already have.

It is important that these plans are consistent with constitutional standards on waiting times and patient choice. It is right that the NHS should consider efficiency savings such as reducing delayed transfers of care, or reducing running costs – because this improves patient care overall.