Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to tackle loneliness in elderly people and the adverse health effects of chronic isolation.

The Department is raising awareness regarding the issue of loneliness and social isolation and helping local health and wellbeing boards and commissioners to get better at measuring the issue in their local communities. This will help them come up with the right targeted solutions, and drive local improvements that really make a difference.

A measure of social isolation has now been included in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework 2013-14 for the first time, marking an important step towards improving the lives of social care users and carers that are experiencing isolation. This measure provides a clear focus for local priority setting, enabling local authorities to determine the scale of the problem in their area.