Local Authorities: Public Health Budget

Baroness Pitkeathley Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Beecham]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact of the £200 million reduction in the public health budget on local authorities in the current financial year.

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, with the leave of the House and at the request of my noble friend Lord Beecham, I beg leave to ask this Question.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, the Department of Health recognises the importance of implementing this saving in ways that minimise any possible disruption to services. It is about to consult publicly on how best to do that, and on how best to monitor the impact on services.

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

I thank the Minister for that reply. In view of the very strong statements that we have had in recent weeks from the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health—and indeed from the Minister himself from this Dispatch Box—about the importance of prevention to help the NHS cope with future demand, is it not extraordinarily short-sighted to impose reductions which inevitably will result in cuts to preventive services, such as contraceptive services, drug and alcohol services and weight reduction? Does this not absolutely undermine the Government’s objective of improving public health?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I shall give a short quote from the Prime Minister:

“when you look at the costs of obesity, smoking, alcohol and diabetes, we know we need a completely new approach to public health and preventable diseases. A real focus on healthy living. That’s why it’s at the heart of the plan”;

that is, the Five Year Forward View. We accept that prevention is extremely important. This reduction in spending is £200 million out of a grant for local authorities of £3.2 billion—a reduction of about 6%. Local authorities have demonstrated in many other areas an ability to extract savings. I am sure they will do the same in this case.