Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of public health funding.

The public health grant to local authorities is £3.279 billion in 2020-21. This is in addition to what the National Health Service spends on public health, which included over £1.3 billion in 2019-20 on national public health programmes such as immunisations and screening.

The Government has also provided £3.7 billion of additional funding for local government to help them respond to COVID-19 pressures across the services they deliver. Local authorities will take spending decisions based on local priorities, and the Government is keeping the position under review.

Funding beyond 2020-21 will be set out at the next spending review.