Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding of the public health grant to local authorities.

At the Spending Review 2021, we considered the need for local authority public health funding and confirmed that the public health grant to local authorities would increase over the settlement period. In 2022/23, the grant increased by 2.81% to £3.417 billion. This is in addition to targeted investment through local Government in start for life support and drug and alcohol treatment services.

We will announce 2023/24 Public Health Grant allocations to local authorities shortly and in doing so will consider the impact of changes to pay and inflation trends and forecasts since the Spending Review.