Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Ministerial colleagues at the Department of Health on (a) how the proposed cap on residential care costs is to be funded and (b) when that cap is planned to be implemented.

Ministers and officials in my department meet regularly with the Department of Health to discuss a wide range of issues. The 2015 Spending Review reaffirmed the Government's commitment to implementing these reforms in April 2020, making funding available in 2019/20 to help local authorities prepare for implementation. Ahead of that, the Department of Health will continue to review the detail, to ensure that the new system can work from day 1, and my officials will engage with them on this.