Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the amount of upfront funding allocated to ICBs in areas of expected high population growth.

NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to integrated care boards, to pay for the services they commission. This process is independent of the Government, and NHS England takes advice on the underlying formula from the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. Most funding is allocated as a non-ring-fenced budget, informed by a calculation of what would constitute a “fair share” of funding, taking account of population, age, need, deprivation, and health inequalities considerations. The population figures take account of Office for National Statistics population projections for the year in question. These projections take account of fertility, mortality, and migration, and so reflect expected high population growth.