asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if there is evidence that the shortfall in the resources available to the Trent Regional Health Authority and the Rotherham Area Health Authority is being narrowed; and what the increase in expenditure by those authorities will be in total and in proportion to the average national increase for such authorities in 1976–77.

Allocations for 1976–77 will be notified shortly. The Government are determined to correct the unacceptably wide inequalities between regions in terms of financial resources available and established the Resource Allocation Working Party, a copy of whose recent report is in the Library of the House. The Trent Regional Health Authority is also pursuing a policy of equalisation within the region.