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 May 2023 to Question 185509 on Life Expectancy, whether his Department is on track to meet this target.

No specific assessment has been made. Current trends show that Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) is stalled. In the period from 2018 to 2020, HLE at birth in the United Kingdom for males was 62.8 years and 63.6 years for females, showing no significant change since 2015 to 2017.

In England in 2019, the conditions responsible for the greatest share of premature death (measured as years of life lost) were cancers (35%) and cardiovascular diseases (26%). The conditions responsible for the greatest proportion of ill-health (measured as years lived with disability) were musculoskeletal disorders (21%) and mental health conditions (15%), which are also the most cited conditions causing economic inactivity. Around one in four adults in England live with two or more long-term conditions.

The Major Conditions Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England including, cancers, cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill health and musculoskeletal conditions.