Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in health inequalities in England between 2005 and 2015; and what steps the Government is taking to reduce health inequalities for vulnerable NHS patients.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health sets out his assessment in his annual report which is published as part of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts. His 2015-16 assessment was that there had been reasonably good progress but more remains to be done.

NHS England has produced tools for clinical commissioning group (CCG) colleagues to help them in relation to health inequalities issues. Work is underway to develop further tools and NHS England has also organised webinars with CCG colleagues to discuss the tools. A programme of webinars is also underway with NHS England commissioners and policy colleagues to ensure they look through the health inequalities lens in all their work. This has been complemented by a capability training programme on equality and health inequalities for NHS England staff which is also due to be piloted with CCG colleagues in the spring.