Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that NHS health checks are reinstated to enable health interventions such smoking cessation to be delivered.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities continues to support local authorities to recover activity on the NHS Health Check programme, where this was paused because of the pandemic. This includes publishing guidance to assist with restart planning and preparation, which is available at the following link:

www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/commissioners-and-providers/national-guidance/

The NHS Health Check is an important gateway to helping people access interventions such as support to stop smoking. These services have continued to operate during the pandemic response as individuals are able to refer themselves directly.