Healthy Life Expectancy: England

Baroness Stedman-Scott Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is right. I very much welcome the provisions in the Employment Rights Act and in other areas; it is a good example of cross-government working. We are pursuing this through Keep Britain Working, which will reduce economic inactivity and focus on workplace health provision, as my noble friend says. I believe that will help address poverty and support healthy working. All those measures will help healthy life expectancy.

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

My Lords, my succinct question is this. Given that healthy life expectancy has fallen despite record levels of NHS spending, with obesity, diabetes and poor mental health continuing to rise, can the Minister explain what specifically will be different in the Government’s approach, beyond simply increasing treatment capacity to prevent more people spending longer periods of their lives in ill health?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

As I mentioned in an earlier answer, this is a long-term and complex matter which has developed over a number of years. It is totally unacceptable that a woman in Hartlepool, for example, will enter ill health some 19 years earlier than a woman in Richmond-upon-Thames. It is about embedding action on health in policies across government. However, as I mentioned, it is also about redesigning the system around the three shifts: emphasis on prevention rather than on sickness, in particular, but also a move to community-based health services, so that people can access healthcare where and when they need it, and, of course, digital access, too.