Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy papers entitled Spending Review 2025, published on 30 June 2025, and Budget 2025, published on 28 November 2025, what their Department’s capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) will be in each year of the Spending Review period; how much capital funding has been allocated to each of their Department’s programmes; and how much and what proportion of the capital DEL allocation remains unallocated in each year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2025 Autumn Budget confirmed that the Department’s capital budgets will rise to £15.2 billion by the end of the 2025 Spending Review period, in 2029/30, to invest in the National Health Service and wider health infrastructure. The following table shows the planned Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits from 2024/25 to 2029/30:
Outturn 2024/25 (£bn) | Planned 2025/26 (£bn) | Planned 2026/27 (£bn) | Planned 2027/28 (£bn) | Planned 2028/29 (£bn) | Planned 2029/30 (£bn) |
£11.5 | £13.6 | £14.0 | £13.8 | £14.8 | £15.2 |
Funding allocations for national capital programmes for spend in the NHS across the 2025 Spending Review period are outlined in the NHS Capital Planning Guidance, for 2026/27 to 2029/30, at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/capital-guidance-2026-27-to-2029-30/
Business planning is conducted each financial year to ensure capital funding is allocated appropriately. Therefore, the allocations set out in the guidance represent indicative figures. The following table shows the allocations set out for the national programme, for estates safety, for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete work, and for constitutional standards and left shift, from 2025/26 to 2029/30:
National programme | 2025/26 (£’000) | 2026/27 (£’000) | 2027/28 (£’000) | 2028/29 (£’000) | 2029/30 (£’000) |
Estates safety | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 | 750,000 |
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete | 440,000 | 432,000 | 402,000 | 391,000 | 399,000 |
Constitutional standards and left shift | 1,650,000 | 1,873,509 | 1,001,290 | 950,500 | 591,000 |
In addition, the 2025 Autumn Budget confirmed £300 million of additional capital investment in NHS technology, building on the investment of up to £10 billion of combined revenue and capital by 2028/29 announced at the 2025 Spending Review. We are also investing over £400 million for upgrades to primary care buildings and neighbourhood health centres over the 2026/27 to 2029/30 period.
We remain committed to delivering all schemes within the New Hospital Programme, which will continue through the 2025 Spending Review period, with funding rising from £979 million in 2026/27 to £3 billion by 2029/30.
Our plans fully allocate research and development funding, which is classified as capital, and for agreed national infrastructure and pandemic preparedness schemes.
The Department does not routinely hold back unallocated capital but has an active role in managing the overall position throughout the year as pressures and underspends emerge as part of core financial management, to ensure capital funding is maximised to address strategic priorities and delivery for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the planned funding allocations for Birmingham and Solihull NHS ICB are in each year for which figures are available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding allocations for the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) for 2025/26 were recently published online by NHS England alongside 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance. The following table shows the funding allocations for the Birmingham and Solihull NHS ICB for 2025/26:
Allocation | 2025/26 amount |
ICB core programme | £3,124,548,000 |
ICB delegated specialised services | £491,587,000 |
ICB primary medical care | £312,120,000 |
ICB pharmacy, ophthalmic, and dental services | £151,387,000 |
ICB running cost allowance | £21,741,000 |
Funding beyond 2025/26 will be determined following Phase 2 of the Spending Review, which will conclude later this year.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will confirm whether (a) Simon Blagden declared his relationship with Larkspur International to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) before his appointment to its advisory board, (b) UKHSA vetted Larkspur International before his appointment and (c) he supplied UKHSA with a list of Larkspur's clients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Simon Blagden did not make a declaration of his relationship with Larkspur International to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) at the time of his appointment as he did not assess there to be any potential conflict of interest. This was compliant with the declaration policy in place. He did declare political donations as required and no conflict of interest was identified through the standard appointments process which precluded his appointment to the UKHSA Advisory Board.
Simon Blagden is an unpaid, associate non-Executive member of the Advisory Board, appointed by the Board. A review of the Conflicts of Interest policy was undertaken by the Government Internal Audit Agency in 2022 and did not raise any concerns with Mr Blagden’s declarations. UKHSA has since chosen to adopt a more stringent policy than the Government standard, requiring declaration of all interests whether they present a potential conflict or not. Under this new policy Mr Blagden has formally declared his relationship with Larkspur International.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which spending programmes their Department devolves for administration to (a) local government in England and (b) other local spending bodies; and what the budget is of each such programme for each year for which budgets are agreed.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
A table is attached showing the budgets for grant schemes issued to local government in England by the Department in the form of grants under the Local Government Act 2003 for the financial years 2023/24, 2022/23 and 2021/22. This includes schemes managed by NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) list the spending programmes his Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.
Answered by Edward Argar
The following table shows spending on programmes issued to local government in England by the Department in 2020/21 in the form of grants under the Local Government Act 2003.
Local authority funding by scheme | 2020/21 actual expenditure £ ’000s |
Infection Control | 1,146,000 |
Workforce Capacity Fund | 120,000 |
Out of Hours Hospital Care Model for People experiencing Homelessness | 2,549 |
West Midlands Engine | 2,300 |
Learning Disabilities and Autism Community Discharge | 20,000 |
PrEP - HIV drug treatment | 11,222 |
LASSL - local reform and community voices grant, social care in prisons grant and war pensions schemes disregard grant | 57,360 |
Contain Outbreak Management Fund | 1,717,092 |
Test and Trace Business Support to Local authorities | 3,000 |
Test and Trace Isolation Support Payments | 144,743 |
Local Authority Practical Support (for those self-isolating) | 12,900 |
Project Eagle - surge testing support | 3,094 |
Rapid Testing | 149,119 |
Community Testing | 126,615 |
Expenditure data for 2021/22 is not yet available. Spending plans for 2022/23 and beyond are currently being finalised.
This information refers to core Departmental expenditure and does not include spending devolved to local authorities by Departmental arm’s length bodies or spending devolved to local National Health Service bodies via NHS England. The Local Authority Public Health Grant is recorded separately as in 2020/21, this was paid to upper-tier local authorities by the former Public Health England (PHE). The value of the Grant paid to local authorities by PHE in 2020/21 was £3.279 billion. With effect from 1 October 2021, the Department has assumed responsibility for this Grant.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide written instructions to NHS Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group requiring them (a) to liaise with hon. Members in the planning of community vaccinations and (b) to provide hon. Members with at least seven days notice of planned community vaccination sessions.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are no plans to do so. Whilst it is encouraged that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) do liaise with local leaders and hon. Members, CCGs are autonomous organisations. As such, there is no formal guidance on the level of interaction CCGs should have with hon. Members and this should be discussed at a local level.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish statistics on covid-19 vaccinations at constituency level.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
NHS England publishes weekly data for vaccinations in England by constituency, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to address the persistent shortages of Registered Nurses in Birmingham’s hospitals identified by the Care Quality Commission in December 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Individual National Health Service employers deliver their own recruitment policies to meet their local need. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement are continuing to work closely with the trusts to ensure that they have appropriate support in place to address the issues identified and that they make sufficient progress.