Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of (a) prevention, (b) diagnosis and (c) treatment of cholesterol; and whether he plans to address these issues in the forthcoming Health Disparities White Paper.

The Department is supporting CVDPREVENT, a new cardiovascular disease primary care audit in England. This national audit will measure trends in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of people with high cholesterol. Early analysis from the CVDPREVENT quality improvement tool shows no change in the percentage of patients in primary care in England with cardiovascular disease who were treated with cholesterol lowering drug therapy between March 2020 and September 2021. Further trends on cholesterol diagnosis and prevention will be available from 2023. The specific policy content of the health disparities white paper will be confirmed in due course.