Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Liver Transformation Programme on reducing the impact of liver disease on health inequalities, mortality rates and variations in care.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Further to the answer provided on 20 July in response to Question 17757, NHS England’s Liver Disease Programme has moved into the next phase of delivery, focused on a targeted set of priorities designed to build on the strongest areas of impact and provide strategic national support, strengthen alignment with wider transformation agendas, and enable systems to prepare for new clinical and operational opportunities, from early identification and prevention of liver cancer to treatment of severe disease.
We are conscious of the current disparities in the impact of liver disease, particularly in deprived communities, but the improvements we are developing through the Liver Disease Programme are too wide-ranging and complex to estimate potential impacts on health inequalities, mortality rates, and variations in care at this stage. We will continue to monitor these issues, and seek to provide further analysis in due course.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding her Department plans to allocate to the Liver Transformation Programme.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Further to the answer provided on 20 July in response to Question 17757, NHS England’s Liver Disease Programme has moved into the next phase of delivery, focused on a targeted set of priorities designed to build on the strongest areas of impact and provide strategic national support, strengthen alignment with wider transformation agendas, and enable systems to prepare for new clinical and operational opportunities, from early identification and prevention of liver cancer to treatment of severe disease.
We are conscious of the current disparities in the impact of liver disease, particularly in deprived communities, but the improvements we are developing through the Liver Disease Programme are too wide-ranging and complex to estimate potential impacts on health inequalities, mortality rates, and variations in care at this stage. We will continue to monitor these issues, and seek to provide further analysis in due course.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to integrate steatotic liver disease indicators into non-communicable disease policy and frameworks to meet the World Health Assembly resolution on steatotic liver disease adopted in May 2026.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government recognises the importance of the World Health Assembly’s resolution on steatotic liver disease (SLD), which marks the first time liver disease has been formally recognised as part of the global agenda on noncommunicable diseases.
We are taking action to ensure SLD is integrated within whole-system approaches and tackled effectively. This includes through NHS England’s Liver Transformation Programme, which aims to improve liver disease diagnosis and treatment through focus on the entire care pathway, ensuring a more integrated and effective approach to liver care. The programme has three workstreams, awareness and prevention, detection and diagnosis, and treatment, which will ensure outcomes are aligned with the goals of the World Health Assembly’s resolution on SLD.
Furthermore, the newly published Cardiovascular Disease Modern Service Framework is specifically designed as an integrated cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic strategy and makes specific mention of the importance of addressing metabolic associated SLD.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
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 potential impact of retiring the OHID Liver Disease Fingertips Profiles on the UK's ability to monitor steatotic liver disease indicators and meet the World Health Assembly resolution on steatotic liver disease adopted in May 2026.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) continues to monitor a wide range of indicators relating to steatotic liver disease, an umbrella term that includes a range of conditions where fat accumulates in liver cells causing dysfunction. Indicators include liver disease and alcoholic liver disease mortality, alcoholic liver disease and alcoholic related hospital admissions, as well as population levels of associated risk factors, including alcohol consumption, obesity, physical activity, diet, and smoking, situated in different profiles on Fingertips. The indicators only cover England.
OHID ceased to update non-alcoholic fatty liver disease hospital admissions rates and premature deaths, in people aged under 75 years old, on the Fingertips profiles in December 2025, as the indicators were not accurate assessments of that condition and only monitored the most severe forms rather than prevalence, and the level of the disease in the population.
Retiring the liver disease profile therefore has had little impact on our ability to monitor steatotic liver disease.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a Roadmap to a Smokefree country to ensure that areas like Blackpool and Fleetwood, where smoking rates are higher than the national average, can support every smoker who wants to quit.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The previous Government’s ambition was to reduce adult smoking prevalence to 5% or less by 2030. We are going even further. Our ambition is to deliver a smoke-free United Kingdom and the landmark Tobacco and Vapes Act will create the first smoke-free generation which is expected to help reduce smoking rates of 14 to 30-year-olds to near zero by 2050.
We fully recognise the importance of stopping people starting smoking, but also of supporting smokers to quit. Alongside the Tobacco and Vapes Act, we have ringfenced funding for stop smoking services within the Public Health Grant, protecting at least £153 million per year for these services. Funding is weighted towards areas with higher smoking prevalence, ensuring we are targeting support to those who need it most, ensuring no one is left behind.
Our immediate focus is on the successful implementation of the smoke-free generation policy and moving swiftly with the secondary legislation programme. We will continue to consider the benefits of publishing a smoke-free roadmap, balancing it against the importance of successfully implementing our significant legislative programme.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether smokefree 2030 remains his Department's target.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The previous Government’s ambition was to reduce adult smoking prevalence to 5% or less by 2030. We are going even further. Our ambition is to deliver a smoke-free United Kingdom and the landmark Tobacco and Vapes Act will create the first smoke-free generation which is expected to help reduce smoking rates of 14 to 30-year-olds to near zero by 2050.
We fully recognise the importance of stopping people starting smoking, but also of supporting smokers to quit. Alongside the Tobacco and Vapes Act, we have ringfenced funding for stop smoking services within the Public Health Grant, protecting at least £153 million per year for these services. Funding is weighted towards areas with higher smoking prevalence, ensuring we are targeting support to those who need it most, ensuring no one is left behind.
Our immediate focus is on the successful implementation of the smoke-free generation policy and moving swiftly with the secondary legislation programme. We will continue to consider the benefits of publishing a smoke-free roadmap, balancing it against the importance of successfully implementing our significant legislative programme.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prepare guidance on applying the Armed Forces Covenant Duty to adult social care.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department of Health and Social Care fully supports the commitment to extend the Armed Forces Covenant duty to include social care. We are dedicated to working closely with the Ministry of Defence and local authorities to ensure the Covenant’s principles are effectively implemented to meet the specific care needs of service personnel, veterans, and their families, including considering where any further guidance might be required.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the merits of expanding existing NHS England funding for (a) national Armed Forces programmes and (b) staff training programmes on Armed Forces community awareness to include the social care sector.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Currently, no such assessment has been made. The National Health Service has several training programmes such as the veteran-aware Trust accreditation scheme, the veteran-friendly GP accreditation scheme and the National Armed Forces Training and Education Programme. These are focussed on the provision of NHS commissioned services.
Social care is commissioned by local authorities. The Department is committed to ensuring the social care workforce has the skills and awareness needed to support all those who draw on care, including members of the Armed Forces community. The Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS) provides funding to help adult social care employers meet the cost of training and qualifications for their workforce.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle health inequalities in liver disease in Blackpool.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Liver disease is a broad term for several conditions affecting the liver and pancreas and the Government is taking decisive action to tackle ill health and shift the focus on diseases such as liver disease from treatment to prevention.
The most prevalent cause of liver-related ill health and death is alcohol-related liver disease. From 2026/27, all alcohol and drug treatment and recovery funding will be channelled through the Public Health Grant, with ringfenced funding in which Blackpool Council will receive £4,554,578 in 2026/27 and indicative totals of £4,647,350 and £4,737,845 for 2027/28 and 2028/29 respectively. The Department has also published the United Kingdom’s first clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment which include guidance on early identification of liver disease and treating alcohol dependence in people with liver disease. To help people make healthier choices about alcohol we are making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information.
Locally, Blackpool Teaching Hospital’s Liver Service has recently achieved micro‑elimination of hepatitis C, with all drug and alcohol services across Lancashire now declared micro‑eliminated. The region’s Liver Health Check Team supports earlier detection of liver disease by referring at‑risk individuals, including those with high body mass index, diabetes, or high alcohol consumption for community fibroscans available in general practices (GPs), community venues, and via mobile units.
NHS England’s liver transformation programme focusses on awareness, prevention, diagnosis, detection, and treatment of all forms of liver disease and has developed a data pack for regional commissioners using the Department’s Fingertips data to support this. It is for commissioners in integrated care boards to determine how best to use this information as part of local commissioning decisions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is assessing new treatments for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the broader term for fat buildup of the liver, which metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) falls under. This includes resmetirom and semaglutide. Outputs and recommendations are expected to be published mid-2026.
As part of our 10-Year Health Plan, we are improving diets, reducing physical inactivity, and creating healthier environments so that fewer people reach the point of needing treatment for diseases such as MASH. This includes updating the standards behind the advertising and promotions restrictions on ‘less healthy’ food and drink, requiring all large food businesses to report against standardised metrics on the healthiness of food sales and getting millions moving more through our national movement campaign.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what targeted interventions he plans to introduce to reduce the effects of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) in areas with high levels of deprivation.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Liver disease is a broad term for several conditions affecting the liver and pancreas and the Government is taking decisive action to tackle ill health and shift the focus on diseases such as liver disease from treatment to prevention.
The most prevalent cause of liver-related ill health and death is alcohol-related liver disease. From 2026/27, all alcohol and drug treatment and recovery funding will be channelled through the Public Health Grant, with ringfenced funding in which Blackpool Council will receive £4,554,578 in 2026/27 and indicative totals of £4,647,350 and £4,737,845 for 2027/28 and 2028/29 respectively. The Department has also published the United Kingdom’s first clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment which include guidance on early identification of liver disease and treating alcohol dependence in people with liver disease. To help people make healthier choices about alcohol we are making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information.
Locally, Blackpool Teaching Hospital’s Liver Service has recently achieved micro‑elimination of hepatitis C, with all drug and alcohol services across Lancashire now declared micro‑eliminated. The region’s Liver Health Check Team supports earlier detection of liver disease by referring at‑risk individuals, including those with high body mass index, diabetes, or high alcohol consumption for community fibroscans available in general practices (GPs), community venues, and via mobile units.
NHS England’s liver transformation programme focusses on awareness, prevention, diagnosis, detection, and treatment of all forms of liver disease and has developed a data pack for regional commissioners using the Department’s Fingertips data to support this. It is for commissioners in integrated care boards to determine how best to use this information as part of local commissioning decisions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is assessing new treatments for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the broader term for fat buildup of the liver, which metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) falls under. This includes resmetirom and semaglutide. Outputs and recommendations are expected to be published mid-2026.
As part of our 10-Year Health Plan, we are improving diets, reducing physical inactivity, and creating healthier environments so that fewer people reach the point of needing treatment for diseases such as MASH. This includes updating the standards behind the advertising and promotions restrictions on ‘less healthy’ food and drink, requiring all large food businesses to report against standardised metrics on the healthiness of food sales and getting millions moving more through our national movement campaign.