Written question asked by Humfrey Malins (Conservative) on Thursday, 30 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 7 May 2009. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 7 May 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Health Services

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the proportion of the NHS budget which was allocated to services for those over the age of 60 years in the last 12 months.

Answer: Information on actual expenditure by age group is not available. Further, primary care trusts' (PCTs) allocations are not broken down by age or on any other basis: there is no ring fencing of funding for individual groups.The weighted capitation formula determines the target funding allocations of PCTs and takes account of the higher cost of providing health care services for those in the older age groups. The formula takes account also of the need for health care services due to the health status and socio-economic characteristics of each PCT's population. Actual allocations depend also on pace-of-change policy: how quickly PCTs are moved towards their target allocation through the distribution of additional funding.The Hospital and Community Health Services component of the formula for 2009-10 and 2010-11 accounts for 76 per cent. of the total target allocation. An estimated 54 per cent. of this component is accounted for by those aged 60 and over, who make up 22 per cent. of the population. The formula is derived using data on actual costs from 2004-05 and 2005-06.Information for the age group 60 and over is not available for other components of the formula or for the target allocations used to inform PCT allocations in 2008-09.Further information about the application of weighted capitation formula can be found in "Resource Allocation: Weighted Capitation Formula (Sixth Edition)", a copy of which has already been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Secondary information