Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of urgency of the need for targets to protect public health from (a) outdoor and (b) indoor air pollution.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Government has set two new targets for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under the Environment Act 2021.These are, a maximum annual mean concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic metre by 2040, and a population exposure reduction target of 35% by 2040 compared to 2018.
To drive action on the PM2.5 targets in the short term Government has also set two interim targets in the Environmental Improvement Plan published in January, a maximum annual mean concentration of 12 micrograms per cubic metre by the end of January 2028, and a population exposure reduction target of 22% by the end of January 2028 compared to 2018
The Government has worked with internationally recognised experts to deliver the evidence to inform target setting. We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency and our expert advisory groups, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants and the Air Quality Expert Group, to develop the evidence base in relation to indoor air quality.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve indoor air quality.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department of Health and Social Care convenes a cross-government official-level working group which is considering how to take forward ambitions set out in both the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2022 and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Air Quality Expert Group’s report of November 2022.
Through its cleaner air programme the United Kingdom Health Security Agency aims to reduce people’s exposure to air pollution, tackle the existing disparities and improve outcomes for all. Its programme has three core elements, increasing the evidence base, supporting stakeholders and improving awareness and understanding.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183643 on Public Health, what methodologies were used to estimate the costs to the NHS for each of the five risk factors specified.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The applicable methodologies for the National Health Service cost attributed to each of the risk factors outlined are explained in the following reports.
The estimated air pollution related costs to the NHS can be found in the Public Health England report ‘Estimation of costs to the NHS and social care due to the health impacts of air pollution: summary report’ (2018) which is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-a-tool-to-estimate-healthcare-costs
Estimated Alcohol related costs to the NHS (2009/10) can be found available at the following link:
www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/153862/response/378684/attach/3/Alcohol%20costs%202009%2010%20July%2023%202012.pdf
Estimated obesity related costs to the NHS can be found in the Frontier Economics report for Nova Nordisc, published in January 2022, ‘Estimating the full costs of obesity’ and is available at the following link:
www.frontier-economics.com/media/5094/the-full-cost-of-obesity-in-the-uk.pdf
Estimated Hypertension related costs to the NHS can be found in the Optimity Matrix Cost-effectiveness review of blood pressure interventions, ‘A Report to the Blood Pressure System Leadership Board’, published November 2014, available at the following link:
Estimated smoking related costs to the NHS can be found in the press release, ‘Smoking costs society £17bn – £5bn more than previously estimated’. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the extent of air pollution (a) directly and (b) indirectly affecting the health of (i) individuals and (ii) communities in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), formerly Public Health England, estimated future morbidity from air pollution, predicting that between 2017 and 2035 in England, 1,327,424 new cases of disease would be attributable to PM2.5, equivalent to 2,248 new cases of disease per 100,000 people. The highest numbers of these cases were predicted to be from coronary heart disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In England, an estimated 1,140,018 new cases of disease attributable to nitrogen dioxide is predicted by 2035, equivalent to 1,933 new cases of disease per 100,000 population. In 2022, the UKHSA estimated that the burden of long-term exposure to air pollution in 2019 in the United Kingdom was an effect equivalent to 29,000 to 43,000 deaths for adults aged 30 years old and over.
For local authorities and regions, the UKHSA produces annual estimates of the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution within the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times his Department has emailed a media release to journalists or weather forecasters about air pollution in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020, (d) 2021, (e) 2022 and (f) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows how many times the Department has emailed a media release to journalists or weather forecasters about air pollution.
Year | Count |
2018 | 4 |
2019 | 4 |
2020 | 0 |
2021 | 0 |
2022 | 1 |
2023 | 0 |
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2023 to Question 183301 on Air Pollution: Death, if he will provide (a) a worked calculation and (b) weblinks to references to show how the number of deaths attributable to nitrogen dioxide in 2019 was calculated.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The most recent estimates, in 2019, of mortality burden associated with air pollution are published in the UK Health Security Agency Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report (2022), which is available at the following link:
The methodology used to calculate burden estimates, including nitrogen dioxide, is described in the article ‘Updated mortality burden estimates attributable to air pollution’ in the report and is based on the method described by the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants. ‘Associations of long-term average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide with mortality’ (2018) report is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-effects-on-mortality
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 181817 on Air Pollution: Death, if he provide a worked calculation and weblinks to references of how the number of deaths in Greater London attributable to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was calculated from the fraction of mortality in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We do not have the information in the format requested. UK Health Security Agency has not calculated the number of deaths attributable to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) for the years requested. The following table shows the fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution, measured as PM2.5, for Greater London in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. The provided values represent the percentage of annual deaths from all causes in those aged 30 years old and older. Estimates are currently available until 2021.
Region | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Greater London | 9.0 % | 8.8 % | 7.1 % | 6.5 % |
An estimate of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to air pollution in a local area can be made by multiplying the above attributable fraction by the total number of deaths annually in the local area. This represents the effect of air pollution across the whole population, as air pollution is considered to act as a contributory factor to many more individual deaths.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which public health factors created the 10 largest direct cost impacts on the NHS in 2021; and how much the NHS spent in 2021 on tackling the health impacts of the following public health factors: (a) air pollution, (b) alcoholism, (c) obesity, (d) excessive salt consumption and (e) smoking.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not have data that denominates the 10 health determinants with the largest direct National Health Service cost impact. Global Burden of Disease data which quantifies the health impact of diseases, injuries, and risk factors considers the top public health factors in the United Kingdom to be tobacco, high fasting plasma glucose, high body mass index, high blood pressure, dietary risks, alcohol use and high cholesterol.
The following table shows the various estimates of the cost to the NHS of the five factors specified. Comparisons of costs should not be made between these estimates because of the different methodologies used in their construction.
Risk factor | Estimated NHS cost | Source of Estimate |
Air Pollution | £1.6 billion for fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide combined between 2017 and 2025. | UK Health Security Agency, 2018 |
Alcohol | £3.5 billion annually | Public Health England, 2009/10 |
Obesity | £6.5 billion annually | Frontier Economics, 2021 |
Hypertension (excessive salt consumption is linked to an increased risk of hypertension) | £2.1 billon annually | Department of Health and Social Care, 2014 |
Smoking | £2.4 billion annually | Action on Smoking and Health, 2022 |
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of a survey by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists published in April 2023 on (a) the average vacancy rates in speech and language therapy services and (b) the level of difficulty managers said they faced in recruiting to both children's and adults' services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will continue to develop the workforce mix in health services, including speech and language therapists. The latest data for January 2023 shows there are 7,090 full-time equivalent professionally qualified speech and language therapists employed across National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. This is 13.5% more than in 2019.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in child referrals for mental health care in 2021-22 shown by NHS statistics.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are committed to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by March 2024 and have set out our aim in the NHS Long Term Plan for an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to get the mental health support they need. We therefore expect to see referrals rise as services expand their capacity.
As part of this expansion, we are rolling out mental health support teams in schools and colleges. As of spring 2022 there were 287 mental health support teams in place in over 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned, and this should have increased to 399 teams in April 2023, expected to cover around 35% of pupils, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
In recognition of the rising demand created by the pandemic, we invested £79 million extra in 2021/22 to significantly expand children’s mental health services, including enabling at least 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services. NHS England also announced a further £40 million in 2021/22 to address the COVID-19 impact on children and young people’s mental health.