Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what sanctions, if any, NHS England intend to apply to Clinical Commissioning Groups that fail to meet their Mental Health Investment Standard at the end of this financial year.

Achievement of the Mental Health Investment Standard is a key part of the operational and financial planning assurance process for 2018/19. Any failure to achieve the standard will be reviewed as part of the overall assessment of clinical commissioning groups as part of the formal planning and in year reporting process. Any failures will be escalated via regional plan assurance routes to the Chief Financial Officer, Paul Baumann, and ultimately to the Chief Executive Officer, Simon Stevens.