Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2019 to Question 211319 on Accident and Emergency Departments, what mechanisms his Department will put in place to ensure a higher share of NHS funding is allocated to geographies with high levels of health inequality.

NHS England is responsible for decisions on the weighted capitation formula used to allocate resources between clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This process is independent of Government. NHS England take advice from the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, a group of academics and other experts.

Over the next five years, NHS England will use the health inequalities adjustments to the national funding formula to target additional funds at areas with high health inequalities. In exchange, those CCGs in receipt of additional health inequalities funding – and the sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems of which they are a part – will for the first time be required to set out transparently how this extra funding is being targeted to improve equity of access and outcomes for inclusion health groups and underserved communities. Furthermore, all local health systems will be expected to set out during 2019 how they will specifically reduce health inequalities by 2023-24 and then by 2028.