Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of clinical commissioning groups met NHS England's planning guidance to increase their proportion of spend of mental health in (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are required to achieve the Mental Health Investment Standard to demonstrate they have increased their spending on mental health in line with the growth in their overall allocation. The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health Dashboard shows which CCGs achieved the standard and which did not at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/

In 2015/16, 167 (80%) of CCGs achieved the standard, and 177 CCGs achieved the standard in 2016/17 (85%).

All CCGs are required to submit details of their mental health expenditure plans for each year as part of the National Health Service annual planning process, and then to provide details of their actual spend at the end of each quarter throughout the year to NHS England. NHS England has developed guidance to support the reporting process to produce consistent information and for assuring the quality of data submissions. NHS England continues to work with CCGs to improve the quality of data provided.