Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies on tackling health inequalities caused by loneliness of the number of people who spent some of the Christmas period alone.

Social isolation is one of several factors that affects people’s health throughout their lifetime and drives health inequalities. The strategic health inequalities review led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London (UCL) (Fair Society, Healthy Lives, 2010) reported that low levels of social integration, and loneliness, significantly increase mortality. The earlier Acheson report (Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health, 1998) noted the importance of maintaining mobility, independence and social contacts as a way of reducing health inequalities among older people. We have taken a coherent approach to addressing these issues at different stages of life and through key transitions. Practical guidance on the issue has been developed by Public Health England and the UCL Institute of Health Equity (Reducing Social Isolation across the Life course, 2015), as part of a wider effort to reduce local health inequalities.