Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to level up inequalities in respiratory health across the north of England.

The NHS Long Term Plan includes respiratory disease as a national clinical priority. The Plan has a focus on interventions for respiratory disease, such as increasing the reach of pulmonary rehabilitation into less served communities through the National Respiratory Programme. NHS England and NHS Improvement have established 13 respiratory clinical networks to provide clinical leadership for respiratory services to reduce inequalities at local and regional level.