Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what amount of the contingency fund held back from clinical commissioning groups in 2016-17 on account of that fund being used to offset financial deficits had been earmarked for Lambeth and Southwark clinical commissioning groups.

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.