Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the trends in the levels of life expectancy in (a) England, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) Oldham; and what progress is being made to improve outcomes.

Life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas are produced by the Office for National Statistics and are available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/lifeexpectancyforlocalareasoftheuk/between2001to2003and2022to2024

Following falls in 2020, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy has since increased for both sexes in England, Greater Manchester, and Oldham. For both sexes, life expectancy in each of these areas in 2024 was similar to pre-pandemic estimates for 2019. Life expectancy in Greater Manchester and Oldham remains significantly lower than in England.

The Government is committed to addressing health inequalities through a comprehensive, long-term, and collaborative approach, rooted in the priorities outlined in the Government's 10-Year Health Plan. This includes an ambition to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions, while raising healthy life expectancy for everyone. Central to this is a shift from treating illness to prioritising prevention, thereby ensuring that every individual, regardless of background or financial circumstance, has the opportunity for better health outcomes.