Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for the delay in the publication of the Public Health Grant Allocation for 2023/24; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this delay on councils and their ability to plan effectively for the new financial year.

Local Authority Public Health Grant allocations are not required to be published by a specific date. The Public Health Grant allocations for 2023/24 were published on 14 March 2023. Publication dates for allocations in the three previous years were 17 March 2020, 16 March 2021, and 7 February 2022.

In recognition of the need to offer local authorities as much certainty as possible, we have also published the indicative allocations for 2024/25 and aim to confirm these by the end of the calendar year.