Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 9 February (HL 5339), whether NHS England and integrated care board aggregate NHS mental health expenditure would still be expected to increase as a share of their total expenditure in 2023/24 compared with 2022/23 if "non-recurrent" expenditure had not been excluded from the baseline calculation; and if not, to itemise and quantify expected "non-recurrent" expenditure in both years.

The non-recurrent expenditure excluded from the baseline calculation is the specific funding provided at Spending Review 2021 for costs relating to COVID-19. Central funding for pensions costs is also excluded as this cannot be split between staff working on mental health and other areas. However, making no adjustments, mental health expenditure as a share of total National Health Service expenditure is still expected to increase, from 8.3% in 2022/23 to 8.5% in 2023/24.