Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to (a) train and (b) recruit additional staff to undertake scheduled health checks.

Local authorities are legally required to offer an NHS Health Check to all eligible 40 to 74 year olds every five years. Delivery guidance emphasises this requirement and quarterly on invitations enables local scrutiny of service provision. The original modelling to inform the NHS Health Check confirmed that offering a check every five years was the most cost-effective scenario. There are currently no plans to change its frequency. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning and training the NHS Health Check workforce. Commissioners have access to the national competency framework to commission any qualified provider to deliver the service.