Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will implement the recommendations of the Royal College of Physicians National Review of Asthma Deaths published in May 2014.

We have welcomed the report of the UK National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) Confidential Inquiry which provides a wealth of information about the causes of mortality from asthma.

While deaths rates from asthma have fallen steadily over the past three decades, and the number of deaths are small compared with those from cancer and heart disease, we are concerned about the proportion of deaths in children and young people that could be preventable.

The new NHS Mandate for 2015-16 says that every patient with a long-term condition, including asthma and other respiratory conditions, should be offered a personalised care action plan. They and their families or carers should know the right medications to use at the right times and how to use them, and to understand the importance of monitoring their condition and how to do this.

NHS England is also working with strategic clinical networks on a programme specifically designed to tackle the issues raised in the NRAD recommendations on paediatric asthma.