Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

It is quite clear that the hon. Lady did not hear any of the answers that I have given, because she has asked something that I have answered multiple times. I refer her to the answers I gave to all those hon. Members.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

5. Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health on a timetable for the publication of a health disparities White Paper.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

The Department continues to review how health disparities can be addressed. In relation to the health disparities White Paper, further information will be available in due course.

[Liz Twist]

There is a 20-year gap in healthy life expectancy between those who live in the most deprived areas of the country and those who live in the least. In Gateshead, my local authority, healthy life expectancy is 57.9 years for men and 58.5 years for women compared with a national average of over 63 years. The Conservative party promised in its 2019 manifesto to increase

“healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.”

Will the Minister come clean and admit that, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the Government are not on track to hit that?

[Maria Caulfield]

This is the first Government to want to tackle health disparities, which have been in place for generations. It is true that a woman born in Blackpool can expect to live eight fewer years than someone in Wokingham, but that is why the levelling up White Paper included a levelling up health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy between local areas by 2030. I refer the hon. Lady to the Core20PLUS5 work done by NHS England that is tackling the five single health indicators that are most expanding health disparities in the 20% most deprived communities.