Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to improve social mobility in each of the last seven years.

The Government is acting to reduce health inequalities by addressing the social causes of ill health, promoting healthier lifestyles for all and tackling differences in outcomes of NHS services. Action is led locally to ensure that the solutions put in place reflect the needs of individual communities.

Reducing health inequalities is underpinned within the Department’s legal duties and achieving measureable and sustained reductions in health inequalities is reflected in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View, Public Health England’s Evidence into Action and supporting strategic and business plans at national and local level.