Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Person Based Resource Allocation formula on reducing health inequality in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) other high-growth areas.

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 (ACRA), a group of academics and other experts.

ACRA has recommended a new approach to health inequalities which was reflected in the CCG allocations published on 10 January 2019.

Population figures for all programme allocations are based on general practitioner registered list sizes, as they have been since 2013-14. Increases for future years are based on the Office for National Statistics estimates of population trends for resident populations, which is the only consistent and robust national data set available to use for this purpose.

Full details of the CCG allocations announcements for 2019-20 to 2023-24 can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/allocations/