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 progress made by local authorities on the provision of public health since 2010.

Since 2013, local authorities have had a statutory duty on improving the health of their local population, along with responsibility for commissioning a range of public health services. Each local authority Director of Public Health must prepare an annual report on the health of the local population.

In addition, the Public Health Outcomes Framework comprises a range of indicators that can be used to assess progress on public health outcomes, including on issues that are specifically impacted by the work of local authorities. A summary assessment of overall performance against the Public Health Outcomes Framework is included in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2021/22.