Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that funding for preventative health measures is targeted to areas where the majority of avoidable deaths occur.

The inclusion of weighting for deprivation, need due to age, and health inequalities in the setting of clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations contributes to ensuring that National Health Service funding is distributed equitably across England to meet the health care needs of the population. CCGs have a duty under the NHS Act 2006 to act with regard to the need to reduce inequalities in access to, and outcomes from, health services.

Since 2013 local authorities have received a public health grant to support them in improving the health of local people. This is primarily allocated based on historical NHS spend which tended to be greater in areas with the highest levels of health need. As a condition of the grant they receive local authorities must have due regard to reducing inequalities in outcomes from their health services.