NHS England has made £1.5 million available in 2014-15 to undertake the work required to establish a national learning disability mortality review function by the end of March 2015. NHS England is currently undertaking work to define the detail of how the review function will operate. However, NHS England is clear that the starting point will be the proposals put forward by the Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities team and will aim to develop proposals with input from a range of partners.

NHS England currently collects and publishes information about mental health spending via its Programme Budgeting Data collection and published expenditure data for 2012-13 on 21 February 2014. This is available on its website at:

www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting

We are working with NHS England to support its plans to develop the Programme Budgeting Dataset for 2013-14 to provide a more meaningful analysis of expenditure on mental health conditions.

Through the Care Bill we are making the biggest change to the care and support system in more than 65 years. The Bill reforms what people pay for care and support and how they pay to create a system that is a fair partnership between people needing care, their families and tax-payers.

The reforms will place a cap on lifetime care costs. This means that people will no longer face the possibility of catastrophic care costs, providing peace of mind and enabling them to plan for their future. New regulations and guidance on how to financially assess people will ensure that, while they are contributing towards the cost of their care, they will only pay what they can afford.

The International Classification of Diseases is the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. This includes the analysis of the general health situation of population groups. It is used to monitor the incidence and prevalence of diseases and other health problems.

The Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems includes in Chapter V a detailed classification of more than 300 mental and behavioural disorders. Its publication follows extensive field-testing by more than 100 clinical and research centres in 40 countries.

Aggregate primary care trust (PCT) expenditure on mental health was £11.28 billion in 2012-13, which is 11.9% of the £94.78 billion total spend by PCTs. The estimate of expenditure on mental health does not include the majority of expenditure on primary care appointments which is recorded as a separate programme category.

It is not possible to provide an estimate of expenditure on physical health. A number of programme categories will have elements of expenditure which could be classified as non-physical, for example, learning disabilities, neurological and social care.

The Department has made no estimate of the cost to the economy of untreated mental illness.

NHS England is due to receive the health and social care data from the Palliative Care Funding Review Pilots by the end of May. Once these data have been analysed, this will form the evidence base for a decision on free social care at the end of life, along with wider policy and financial considerations.

The projected activity levels and needs assessment for patients with complex needs requiring access to specialised augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) services has been informed by the audit project undertaken jointly by the Department for Education and Sheffield university looking at provision of AAC services across the United Kingdom and ‘Two Years On’ the final report of the Communication Champion for Children Jean Gross CBE. This will inform NHS England’s agreement of contracts with those specialised providers for 2014-15. This work has been led by the NHS England AAC subgroup of the Complex Disability Equipment Clinical Reference Group.

The commissioning responsibility for the commissioning of non-specialised AAC services remains the responsibility of individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). NHS England has no mandate to direct CCGs or health and wellbeing boards in relation to the provision of those non specialised services.

We have committed to continuing the annual grant of over £10 million, allocated by NHS England, while they and Monitor develop a per-patient funding system to ensure that from 2015 hospice services can be funded locally on an equitable and transparent basis. No decision has been made on an extension of the grant beyond 2015.

It will be important that there is a smooth and managed transition from the current system to the new payment system.

The pension reforms fundamentally change the way that people can access their retirement savings, giving them much greater choice about how they support themselves during later life. This means that depending on the decision they make, people may increase or decrease their chances of being eligible for means-tested services at some point in their retirement. We are working closely with cross-government colleagues to consider the options for England, including what other products may be disregarded, and to ensure that where necessary, the relevant guidance is updated before the new flexibilities are implemented in April 2015.

There has been regular informal contact between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department of Health policy officials regarding the impact of the Consumer Rights Bill, as is usual for the development of primary legislation. This includes contact with policy officials within the adult social care directorate in the Department of Health covering issues including personal budgets and the adult social care market.

In addition, BIS consulted widely on consumer law reform in 2008 and 2012, and published a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in 2013. BIS has also completed full impact assessments for the provisions in the Bill.

Health care in Cambridgeshire has been underfunded for years, and mental health care particularly so. This is getting worse as a result of the private finance initiative contracts that were signed, the differential deflator for mental health and physical health, and the simple fact that mental health demand is up. Will the Secretary of State meet me and the mental health trust to work out a way out of these problems that will not harm patients?

We are committed to undertaking a review of choice in end of life care which we aim to complete in 2014. The Department, together with the National Council for Palliative Care, recently held a workshop involving a full range of experts and stakeholders on what a review into a choice offer should look like. The formal arrangements for the proposed review, including its terms of reference, timetable and composition are currently being developed and will be made available shortly.

The Department has no plans to commission a national survey of investment in mental health services for 2013-14. The Department stopped commissioning the national surveys of investment in mental health services in 2012 as the new landscape for health services and the abolition of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities prevented continuation of these surveys in their existing format. The Department is committed to reducing the data burden placed on organisations and has no plans to commission any further surveys of this type.

NHS England published expenditure data for 2012-13 on 21 February 2014 which shows expenditure on mental health in 2012-13 was £11.28 billion. This information is available on their website at:

www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

and the document has been placed in the Library.

Ensuring patients have more say in how their care is delivered and embedding choice are key themes in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to ensure we put the patient first and drive improvements in quality. As part of this, ‘No decision about me, without me’ (2012) set out the Government's intention to extend choice to mental health.

The National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 were published in November 2013 to extend the legal right to choice of provider at first out-patient appointment in mental health from 1 April 2014.

Extending choice to mental health from April is also a priority in ‘Closing the Gap: Priorities for essential change in mental health’ (2014), to enable patients to choose which provider and consultant or mental health professional will be in charge of their care for their first out-patient appointment. The ‘NHS Mandate 2014/15’ commits NHS England to ensure patients' rights to choice are embedded by 2015.

We held the third Choice in Mental Health Workshop on 12 March 2014 where we set out the critical steps required to start implementing choice from 1 April 2014 and the programme of work to deliver the NHS Mandate commitment to embed choice in mental health by 2015.

The Department has no plans to commission a national survey of investment in mental health services for 2013-14. The Department stopped commissioning the national surveys of investment in mental health services in 2012 as the new landscape for health services and the abolition of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities prevented continuation of these surveys in their existing format. The Department is committed to reducing the data burden placed on organisations and has no plans to commission any further surveys of this type.

NHS England published expenditure data for 2012-13 on 21 February 2014 which shows expenditure on mental health in 2012-13 was £11.28 billion. This information is available on their website at:

www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

and the document has been placed in the Library.

Ensuring patients have more say in how their care is delivered and embedding choice are key themes in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to ensure we put the patient first and drive improvements in quality. As part of this, ‘No decision about me, without me’ (2012) set out the Government's intention to extend choice to mental health.

The National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 were published in November 2013 to extend the legal right to choice of provider at first out-patient appointment in mental health from 1 April 2014.

Extending choice to mental health from April is also a priority in ‘Closing the Gap: Priorities for essential change in mental health’ (2014), to enable patients to choose which provider and consultant or mental health professional will be in charge of their care for their first out-patient appointment. The ‘NHS Mandate 2014/15’ commits NHS England to ensure patients' rights to choice are embedded by 2015.

We held the third Choice in Mental Health Workshop on 12 March 2014 where we set out the critical steps required to start implementing choice from 1 April 2014 and the programme of work to deliver the NHS Mandate commitment to embed choice in mental health by 2015.

NHS England advises that information from 2011-12 and 2012-13 was used in the calculations for the baseline funding allocation for specialised commissioning in 2013-14.

NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who commission health services on behalf of their local population.

It is for local CCGs to decide how to best use the funding allocated to them, underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local health care needs.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of guidance on pain and

pain management. This guidance represents evidence-based best practice and provides a clear description of what high-quality health and social care services look like, so that organisations can improve quality and achieve excellence.

The Department expects CCGs to take into account any relevant NICE guidance as they design services to meet the needs of patients.

The Department does not systematically collect information on the priorities of local areas, or their spending on diabetes prevention and treatment.

Health and wellbeing boards are for local authorities, the national health service, local Healthwatch, communities and wider partners, to share system leadership of both health and care services and population health.

While boards do not hold budgets or allocate funds, they are responsible for developing Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWS) (based on Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA)) that form the basis of NHS and local authorities' own commissioning plans across health, social care, public health and children's services.

JSNA and JHWS are locally-led processes through which local areas identify the current and future health and well-being needs of the local population, and may well include provision for diabetes prevention and treatment.

In January 2014, NHS England published 'Action for Diabetes', which sets out how plans should be prepared for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, earlier diagnosis of all diabetes and integrated care for those living with diabetes.

NHS England is also putting a real emphasis on screening for high risk or the presence of type 2 diabetes through NHS health checks. The NHS Health Check is a risk assessment and management programme, for those aged 40 to 74, aimed at raising awareness and preventing a range of illnesses, including diabetes.

Delivery of the NHS Health Check Programme has been mandated to local authorities from April 2013, and NHS England has an objective in its mandate from the Department to work with Public Health England to support local government in this work.

The Department does not systematically collect information on the priorities of local areas, or their spending on lifestyle weight management programmes.

Health and wellbeing boards are for local authorities, the national health service, local Healthwatch, communities and wider partners, to share system leadership of both health and care services and population health.

While boards do not hold budgets or allocate funds as such, they are responsible for developing Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWS) (based, on Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSSA)) that form the basis of NHS and local authorities' own commissioning plans across health, social care, public health and children's services.

JSNA and JHWS are locally-led processes through which local areas identify the current and future health and well-being needs of the local population, and may well include provision for weight management services.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 all providers of regulated activities have to register with CQC and meet a set of requirements of safety and quality.

The CQC has provided the following information:

The CQC has set out its purpose of ensuring services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and to encourage services to improve. To achieve this aim, the CQC is in the process of finalising its inspection schedule and budget with the Department for 2014-15. Any figures quoted are therefore subject to change.

Based on current assumptions there are 131 inspectors that will form the core of the CQC's hospital inspection staff in April 2014. To deliver the programme of inspections (including the new approach to its new inspection process, and current approach of risk-based inspections and follow up inspections) the CQC estimates that this will increase to between 160 and 220 by June 2014. Full-time equivalent resources beyond quarter 1 of the financial year are expected to increase in line with the inspection schedule and to reflect the CQC's new approach as it is phased in.

The staff resources for the chief inspector of hospitals are based on understanding the number of teams that are required to regulate the services. The teams include experts such as clinical associates and people who use services for example, Experts by Experience.

The CQC has been given additional resources for this financial year to help us deliver the program of improvement to hospital inspections. The CQC is in the final stages of planning and budgeting for 2014-15 and when this is finalised they will be agreed with the Department. The CQC cannot supply a figure for the budget directly allocated to the hospital inspection directorate for 2013-14, given that the directorate's full first year of operation will be 2014-15.

As part of the ongoing Review of the Adult Autism Strategy, we are actively considering a variety of proposals from the National Autistic Society relating to awareness-raising, how local communities can become more autism-aware, and new models of provision for people with autism.