Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides to public health teams operating in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency to increase men’s engagement with preventative health services.

On 19 November, to coincide with International Men’s Health Day, we published the first ever Men’s Health Strategy for England which aims to improve the health of all men and boys in England, including those in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.

We recognise that many of the issues affecting men cannot be solved by the Government alone. The strategy sets out how other sectors, such as the National Health Service, local government, employers, charities, research funders and communities, can contribute to shared outcomes and highlights that improving men’s health will depend on how national priorities are translated into local delivery.

The Department support Upper Tier Local Authorities, including Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, with the Public Health Grant. This is ringfenced funding given to local government to improve the health of their local populations and to reduce inequalities. We recently announced details of a three-year funding settlement for local government, including the Public Health Grant.