Life Expectancy

(asked on 23rd February 2018) - View Source

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 22 January 2018 to Question 123454, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the decline in life expectancy in some local authority areas and the disparity in life expectancy across local authorities.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 28th February 2018

We recognise that the causes of health inequalities are multi-faceted and highly complex. We take a comprehensive and strategic approach to reducing health inequalities that addresses the root social causes, promotes healthier lifestyles for all and improves the consistency of NHS services.

We have taken tough action to protect the public’s health - introducing a sugar tax as part of our childhood obesity plan, standardised packaging cigarettes and a world-leading diabetes prevention programme. It will take time for these measures to have an effect, so no assessment of their impact has been made. Our commitment is demonstrated by the £16 billion we will invest over the current spending period until 2020 to support local public health services. Local authorities must consider health inequalities when investing this ring-fenced money.

We have introduced transparent measurement through high level measures to reduce health inequalities in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the Public Health Outcomes Framework and NHS Outcomes Framework. In March 2015, we published an additional list of selected NHS Outcomes Framework indicators for which health inequalities data has been made available. Last year Public Health England (PHE) published a report entitled ‘Public Health Outcome Framework: Health Equity Report’, which provides detailed statistics on the distribution and drivers of health inequality across England, with a specific focus on ethnicity. The report is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629563/PHOF_Health_Equity_Report.pdf

PHE has published a number of statistics, evidence reports and tools to enable local government and the wider public health system to take effective action on health equity.

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