Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Clinical Commissioning Groups are allocating the additional investment promised by Her Majesty's Government for mental health to mental health services.

It is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to determine the level of spend on specific services. CCGs are required to achieve the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS) - i.e. to increase their spend on mental health services in excess or equal to the growth in their programme allocation and to deliver on the operational targets laid out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.

NHS England now publishes CCG mental health spend. Over 80% of CCGs met the MHIS in 2016/17 and are forecast to achieve the standard in 2017/18. Assurance processes are in place centrally and regionally to review and to validate reported spend. For 2018/19 all CCGs will be required to meet the MHIS and this will be subject to confirmation by their auditors.