Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what account they are taking of the submission by the Nuffield Trust on National Health Service funding in the 2015 Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Government has been clear that it wants to engage and harness a wider range of expertise as part of the 2015 Spending Review process and accordingly welcomes the submission of the Nuffield Trust.

Rising demands and continued fiscal constraint means that the National Health Service faces challenges in ensuring that it remains financially sustainable in the future. The Government believes that the answer to these challenges lies in changing the way services are delivered and keeping people well and independent for longer.

This is why the Government has committed to fully meeting the additional funding requirement – £8 billion per year over and above inflation by 2020-21 – identified by the NHS Five Year Forward View.