Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total level of the contingency fund held back from clinical commissioning groups was in 2016-17 that was used to offset financial deficits in NHS trusts.

The total amount that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were asked to set aside at the start of the 2016-17 financial year was 1% of non-recurrent expenditure totalling £707 million, plus a further £92 million within NHS England direct commissioning. Neither in the case of CCGs nor NHS England direct commissioners was the money held back.

It would be for each individual CCG to plan spending the 1% non-recurrent monies – therefore this information would not be held, though NHS England would expect and encourage the CCGs to invest the money in transformation.