Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33537 on Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints, how his Department defines a system control total; and if he will make a statement.

The shared NHS planning guidance, 'Delivering the Forward View: NHS Planning Guidance 2016/17 - 2021', published in December 2015, stated that NHS England and NHS Improvement would continue to be open to new approaches to contracting between NHS commissioners and providers and that this could, for instance, include exploring with a few local health systems applying a single financial control total across local commissioners and providers. NHS England and NHS Improvement will work, where appropriate, with local health systems that wish to develop fuller proposals as part of their Sustainability and Transformation Plans.

The Guidance is now available at:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/planning-guid-16-17-20-21.pdf