Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage more regular blood pressure checks as a means of reducing costs to the NHS of conditions that otherwise remain undetected.

Public Health England (PHE) established the Blood Pressure System Leadership Board (BPSLB) to help drive improvements in the prevention, detection and management of high blood pressure. In 2014 the group published ‘Tackling high blood pressure: From evidence into action’, which sets out priority interventions required and key partner commitments. In the same year, PHE commissioned an assessment of the cost effectiveness of selected blood pressure interventions to help inform the work of the BPSLB.

Between April 2013 and June 2016, 4.58 million people have benefitted from a blood pressure check as part of their NHS Health Check. Recent evaluation of the programme demonstrated that one case of hypertension was diagnosed in every 27 people receiving a check.

PHE and partners have developed a Heart Age Tool, designed to help people understand their heart health and cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure. Over one million people have used the tool to date.