Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate his Department has made of the financial cost to a local authority of a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards assessment; and if he will make a statement.

The Government does not collect information on local authority expenditure on their role in relation to the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

The Department published an impact assessment on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in 2008.

Official statistics on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are published annually by NHS Digital. Information on the number of applications to each local authority and the outcome of those applications is available at:

- 2014/15 - http://content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB18577/dols-eng-1415-ann-a.xlsx

- 2015/16 - http://content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21814/dols-eng-1516-annx-c.xlsx

Data relating to 2016/17 will be published by NHS Digital in autumn 2017.

Additional funding was provided to local authorities for their role in relation to the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in 2015 and was allocated using the Relative Needs Formula. The amount provided to each local authority is provided in the attached table.