Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of funding the NHS pay awards through the public health grant on the availability of funds for public health programmes.

For the 2023/24 pay offer announced on 16 March 2023, the Department has already made funding available for up to 3.5% for pay in 2023/24 in its existing budgets. The Department is working with the Treasury to ensure it has the money it needs to fully fund this pay offer, which will include additional funding, looking across Departmental budgets and wider public spending.