Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding for NHS trusts remains in line with projected demand for services; and if he will make a statement.

To deliver the Five Year Forward View, the Department of Health is providing the National Health Service with an additional £10 billion of real terms funding by 2020/21 compared to 2014/15. NHS England and clinical commissioning groups then commission activity from NHS trusts. Where this is commissioned under the National Tariff, funding to providers varies in line with the volume of activity. The annual increase in the tariff (the tariff uplift) is also a benchmark for activity commissioned under block contracts and other exceptions to National Tariff arrangements. The tariff uplift includes an efficiency requirement, and NHS trusts are making a contribution to the overall efficiencies that the Five Year Forward View sets out to deliver.