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Contraceptives: Finance

Volume 491: debated on Monday 27 April 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the funding for contraception announced by his Department on 26 February 2009 has been allocated to each strategic health authority. (269991)

The following table shows the sums which will be allocated to strategic health authorities (SHAs) in 2009-10 to assist with improving access to contraceptive services, particularly for young people. The announcement on 26 February 2009 stated that £1 million would be allocated in respect of further education (FE) colleges.

The Department found, subsequent to the announcement, that SHAs had received a large number of bids and were keen to respond to these and to receive more than £1 million to expand contraceptive services in FE colleges. We therefore increased this allocation to £1.6 million.

£

SHA

Contraception

FE colleges

Total

North East

780,000

150,000

930,000

North West

1,210,000

200,000

1,410,000

Yorkshire and Humberside

1,010,000

150,000

1,160,000

East Midlands

900,000

150,000

1,050,000

West Midlands

1,000,000

150,000

1,150,000

East of England

1,000,000

150,000

1,150,000

London

1,300,000

200,000

1,500,000

South East Coast

900,000

150,000

1,050,000

South Central

900,000

150,000

1,050,000

South West

1,000,000

150,000

1,150,000

Total

10,000,000

1,600,000

11,600,000

In addition to the funding announced on 26 February, each SHA will also receive an additional £250,000 to pump-prime the provision of information technology in community contraception services.

SHAs have been advised of these allocations.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to repeat for 2009-10 the allocation of additional funding under general allocations to primary care trusts for contraception services made for 2008-09. (269992)

Primary care trust (PCT) allocations are being increased by 5.5 per cent. in both 2009-10 and 2010-11—a total cash increase of £8.6 billion. PCT allocations are not broken down into funding for individual policy streams such as contraception services. Rather it is for the national health service locally to decide how much resource to invest in order to meet national and local priorities as set out in the NHS Operating Framework, which mentions tackling teenage pregnancy as a key priority for local action.