Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the financial allocation to the Work and Health Programme by his Department will be in each of the next five years.

The Department announced on 30 January our intention to provide around £100m of funding to London and Greater Manchester to develop, procure and deliver localised versions of the new Work and Health Programme to fit the needs of their residents. In addition, the Department has launched a commercial process to let contracts with a total value in excess of £400m for the Work and Health Programme in the rest of England and Wales. We are also in discussion with the Scottish Government about devolving an appropriate level of funding for equivalent support they may wish to offer.

At this point we cannot confirm the financial allocation for each of the next five years as this will be dependent on the outcomes of the commercial process and agreements with HMT on funding beyond the current Spending Review period.