Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether funding to the NHS will increase if inflation forecasts are revised upwards by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The Spending Review settlement, delivered by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015, set the Department’s overall budget for the remaining years of the Parliament and the level of funding that will be available to the National Health Service. It set absolute spending totals providing certainty for financial planning over the period.

The Department’s expenditure budgets are not adjusted for inflation but real terms growth in health expenditure is measured through Gross Domestic Product Deflators.

Gross Domestic Deflators are produced by the Treasury from data provided by the Office for National Statistics. Forecasts are produced by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility and are usually updated around the time of major policy announcements, namely; the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, and the Budget.