Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to local authorities to help people suffering from poor mental health as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

£15 million from the additional £500 million funding announced as part of the Spending Review in November 2020 will be invested in local authority areas in the most deprived parts of the country to help stimulate and boost prevention and early intervention services to support people who have been hardest hit by the pandemic. In 2021-22 the total public health grant to local authorities will be £3.324 billion. The grant will be ring-fenced for use on public health functions, including public mental health. This may include public mental health challenges arising directly or indirectly from COVID-19.