Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the quality of and (b) increase access to public health care in (i) Stevenage and (ii) Hertfordshire.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the public health needs of their local population, developing public health strategies and commissioning services to improve the health of their populations.

Local authorities have responsibility for the commissioning of public health services such as sexual health, stop smoking, drug and alcohol services and the NHS Health Check. Public Health England supports local authorities to do this through the provision of national public health campaigns, public health intelligence, evidence-based advice and guidance on what works in practice, commissioning support packs and service assessment and quality improvement frameworks.

At a local level, Public Health England East of England supports local authorities through a series of commissioner networks that share good practice, support sector led improvement and effective service delivery.