Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had on the level of funding required from the public health grant in order to ensure that local authorities are able to fulfil their statutory public health responsibilities.

The Department meets frequently with local government representatives on a range of public health issues. Most recently, the Minister for Primary Care and Public Health met with the Local Government Association on 17 January and the Association of Directors of Public Health on 24 January to discuss matters relating to public health, including future public health grant allocations.

At the 2021 Spending Review, we considered the need for local authority public health funding and confirmed that the public health grant to local authorities would increase over the settlement period. In 2022/23, the grant increased by 2.81% to £3.417 billion. This is in addition to targeted investment through local government in start for life support and drug and alcohol treatment services.

We will announce 2023/24 public health grant allocations to local authorities shortly, and in doing so will consider the impact of changes to pay and inflation trends and forecasts since the Spending Review.