Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made on introducing tariffs on mental health services.

Monitor and NHS England are responsible for setting the overall national payment system arrangements. However, payment for mental health services are agreed locally and underpinned by mental health clusters. These clusters help commissioners and provider agree costs by setting out the resources required to deliver mental health care.

Monitor and NHS England published the national payment system arrangements for 2015-16 for statutory consultation on 26 November. The payment systems arrangements for 2015-16 give a clear signal to the mental health sector to implement local payment models which support recovery and outcomes and reflect the needs of local communities. To support this move Monitor plans to revise its guidance to be clearer on how mental health services should be paid for and has published example payment models for mental health services.

Monitor has published its long-term pricing strategy for the development of the national tariff and is working with partners to develop further the payment system for mental health.