To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to close the life expectancy gap between socio-economic groups.
Answered on
1 April 2019
Average life expectancy at birth in England has been increasing for men and women and is currently around its highest ever. However, improvements in life expectancy have slowed for both males and females since 2011, and average life expectancy in England is currently stable.
The Department published a vision for putting prevention at the heart of the nation's health in November 2018 which set out an ambition for everyone to enjoy at least five extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035 and to reduce the gap between the richest and poorest. Later this year we plan to publish a prevention Green Paper which will set out cross-Government plans for prevention in greater detail.
We are working across Government and with partners nationally and locally to deal with the conditions that make people ill in the first place. We already have world leading programmes for example on childhood obesity and tobacco control, prevention of diabetes and heart disease. We now need to go further to make sure we are targeting our efforts where the need is greatest.
The NHS Long Term Plan sets out new funded action the National Health Service will take to strengthen its contribution to prevention and health inequalities. All major national programmes and every local area across England will be required to set out specific measurable goals and mechanisms by which they will contribute to narrowing health inequalities over the next five and 10 years.