Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is tacking to help tackle the socio-economic factors which contribute to ill health. (43528)
Tabled on: 02 April 2025
Answer:
Ashley Dalton:
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Poole on 5 March 2025, to Question 33818.
The answer was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
Answer:
5 March 2025
The Government’s Health Mission commits to building a National Health Service fit for the future, including through a shift from treatment to prevention. To support the mission, we are taking a range of action which will address the underlying causes of ill health.
Relevant cross-Government activity includes work to develop a new fuel poverty strategy, beginning with a consultation which runs until 4 April, publication in December 2024 of a revised National Planning Policy Framework, giving local authorities stronger, clearer powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools and where young people congregate, the establishment of a cross-Government child poverty taskforce, and commitment we made in the English Devolution White Paper, published in December 2024, to introduce a new statutory health and health inequalities duty for strategic authorities.
The Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health and Social Care operate a Joint Work and Health Directorate, in recognition of the significant link between work and health, and to improve employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions.
