Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the level of funding awarded to Clinical Commissioning Groups on regional health inequalities.

NHS England continues to target a higher share of funding towards geographies with high health inequalities as outlined in the 2021/22 Planning Guidance.

The new Health and Care Bill will form new integrated care systems to ensure the healthcare system is effectively managing population health and tackling health inequalities. The Bill will ensure that duties previously applied to clinical commissioning groups to reduce health inequalities will also apply to the newly formed integrated care boards (ICBs). The reforms will place a greater emphasis on population health outcomes and health inequalities. NHS England will continue to have a national level duty and ICBs will tackle health inequalities over a larger area, working with a range of partners including local authorities.