Earl of Listowel
Main Page: Earl of Listowel (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Earl of Listowel's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(5 years, 4 months ago)
Lords ChamberI thank the noble Lord for that question. He is absolutely right that respiratory illness can be extremely serious. The UK has a higher rate of respiratory deaths than any other country in the OECD; this is a clinical priority for the NHS and the Government are committed to driving it forward. We are working with the British Lung Foundation and the NHS to deliver the co-designed lung foundation’s plan and I am happy to give him that commitment now.
My Lords, the report highlights the need for prevention, including among children and young people. Will the Government look at the funding of health visitors, who can speak to mothers about smoking, and recognise that a quarter of health visitor numbers have been cut because of their dependence on local authority funding? Will they also look at school funding to ensure that all schools can make the maximum effort to protect schoolchildren from air pollution?
The noble Earl is absolutely right. Prevention is a core part of the plan and as well as smoking, the clean air strategy and flu vaccinations, health visitors are a crucial part of it, and will be looked at as part of the forthcoming prevention Green Paper.