Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the future effect of the introduction of the national living wage on sleep-in payments used by the learning disability sector.

We have not made a specific assessment of the effect of the introduction of the National Living Wage on sleep-in payments used by the learning disability sector.

However, as part of the recent Spending Review, the Department considered adult social care expenditure and the future demand for services, and engaged closely with providers within the sector. This included the impact of the new National Living Wage on local authority finances as part of an overall assessment of spending pressures.