Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of local authority funding deficits on regional public health outcomes.
We have made no such specific assessment. At the Spending Review, the Government announced an approximately £1.6 billion additional grant in the Local Government Departmental Expenditure Limit for the next three years. This will allow councils to increase spending on public services, such as supporting families, children’s and adults’ social care. We have also made available over £12 billion to local government since the start of the pandemic to address the costs and impacts of COVID-19.