Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2024 to Question 17902, how many individual Musculoskeletal Physical Activity Hubs will be created as a result of the £12 million a year allocated as part of the 2023 Spring Budget.

The DHSC/DWP Joint Work and Health Directorate is actively exploring opportunities to increase access to, and hence the number of, MSK Physical Activity Hubs in the Community, and enhancing the interventions on offer by embedding vocational support and rehabilitation services. This includes how to maximise access for people with greatest unmet MSK need and people with MSK conditions living in areas of deprivation. We are exploring how to improve referral pathways so where appropriate people with MSK conditions get easier access. This will help inform new models of delivery and our thinking on scale.

We are currently undertaking extensive stakeholder engagement and anticipate publishing our approach over the next few months.