§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what sectors will benefit most from the additional £700 million which he has promised to spend on the National Health Service in the next financial year.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeMy right hon. Friend has announced that the Government will spend an extra £700 million on the NHS in Great Britain in 1985–86 compared with 1984–85. This total includes additional revenue and capital spending for health authorities and additional spending on family practitioner services and the centrally financed services.
The largest additional amount is for health authorities' revenue, which in England will increase by £500 million compared with 1984–85 and is £80 million higher than the planned expenditure in the last public expenditure White Paper. This is a cash increase of 5½ per cent., 1 per cent. more than forecast inflation. Health authorities will also have available to them the benefits of their cost improvement programmes on which we are looking for further progress. They will be required to meet all their costs including all pay and price increases from within these resources. In future, the Government do not intend to increase cash limits for additional pay or price increases.
With these additional resources, we expect health authorities to continue to improve services and to reduce waiting lists.