Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of welfare reform on health inequalities in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England.

The policy responsibility for welfare reform sits with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Department of Health has not made a separate assessment of the effect of welfare reform on health inequalities in England.

Although no assessment has been made in England, DWP has engaged across government on its proposals for welfare reform. The Department of Health has been involved in discussions on the introduction of Universal Credit and its impact on health inequalities for programmes such as Healthy Start and Help with Health Costs.