Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of maintaining increases in mental health funding or funding for other NHS services; and if he will make a statement.

The Spending Review in November 2015 settled the level of funding that the National Health Service in England will receive over the course of this Parliament. The NHS will be receiving £10 billion more per year in real terms by 2020-21 compared to 2014-15. This increase in funding enables increases in both mental health funding and other key priorities. It supports NHS England’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View, delivering high quality care seven days a week.

This also supports the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016. The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, as the report of the Mental Health Taskforce, made the case for additional investment in mental health which will in turn deliver savings to the NHS including the acute sector. The Taskforce recommended, and we have accepted, investing £1 billion more per year in mental health by 2020-21.

NHS England is also monitoring investment in mental health as commissioners are required to increase their mental health spending in line with the growth in their overall programme allocation.