Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the outcome of the consultation of the extension of Healthy Start to children from families with no recourse to public funds; and whether they have set a timeline for making that extension a statutory scheme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to giving every child the best start in life. The Department is currently considering options on this issue, and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the Child Poverty Strategy, published on 5 December 2025, what steps they are taking to ensure that the target to end the discharge of newborn babies into bed and breakfast accommodation or other unsuitable shared housing applies to all families, including those seeking asylum and those subject to no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to ending the practice of discharging newborn babies into bed and breakfast or other unsuitable shared accommodation through the Child Poverty Strategy, which has now been published. We are working closely across the Government, including with the Home Office, to consider its implementation and any other associated impacts.
Asylum seeking families can access some of the support set out in the Child Poverty Strategy, including Best Start Family Hubs in England.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in reducing disparities in health outcomes between ethnic groups; and how that progress is monitored and evaluated.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with an ambitious commitment to halve the healthy life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest regions.
Our 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out a reimagined service designed to tackle inequalities in both access and outcomes. This includes tackling the conditions where there are the greatest disparities for ethnic groups.
In England, the maternal mortality rates are significantly higher among women from Black and Asian ethnic backgrounds. To combat this, we are introducing an anti-discrimination programme to all trusts to tackle discrimination and racism, and have published a ‘Maternal Care Bundle’, which includes best practice for the clinical conditions that are the leading causes of death for women from Black and Asian backgrounds.
NHS England have launched a Maternity and Neonatal Equalities dashboard that brings together key information to address health inequalities in maternity and neonatal care services from a range of data sources, with breakdowns by ethnicity and deprivation to make health inequalities visible, measurable, and actionable in maternity and neonatal services.
We have also legislated to modernise the Mental Health Act to give patients greater choice, autonomy, enhanced rights and support, and ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout their treatment which will seek to address some of the disparities between ethnic groups. The Government is also committed to delivering the cross-sector Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. The ambitions outlined in the strategy include research on, and better understanding of, national trends and suicide rates in particular groups, including ethnic minority groups.
We have published a plan designed to transform cancer outcomes and we are determined to close inequalities in screening and early diagnosis for ethnic minority communities and underserved communities through our new Neighbourhood Early Diagnosis Fund, which is part of £200 million for Cancer Alliances.
There are ethnic inequalities that exist across the cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathway, that is, from the prevention of disease, through to treatment and rehabilitation after a CVD event. To address this, the Department and NHS England are working together to deliver the CVD Modern Service Framework and are engaging widely throughout its development. At the heart of this is engagement with people and communities, including through the Race Equality Engagement Group.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address inequalities in maternal health outcomes, particularly among women from deprived or marginalised backgrounds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that there are stark inequalities for women and babies, and that they should receive the high-quality care they deserve, regardless of their background, location, or ethnicity.
Baroness Amos is chairing the National Independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation which aims to identify the drivers and impact of inequalities faced by women, babies, and families from Black and Asian backgrounds, as well as deprived and marginalised groups.
The Government is committed to setting an explicit target to close the maternal mortality gap. We are ensuring that we take an evidence-based approach to determining what targets are set, and that any targets set are women and baby-centred.
NHS England’s Perinatal Equity and Anti-Discrimination Programme aims to ensure that all service users and their families receive care that is free from discrimination and racism. Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems have published Equity and Equality action plans containing evidence-based interventions to support women and families from ethnic minority backgrounds or economically deprived areas. NHS England also launched the Maternal Care Bundle that sets clear standards across all services, focused on the main causes of maternal death and harm. The Maternal Care Bundle is avaiable on the NHS.UK website. Women from Black and Asian backgrounds are more at risk of specific clinical conditions that are the leading causes of death. This bundle targets these conditions, and we expect a decline in deaths and harm.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce regional differences in life expectancy; and what steps they are taking to account for housing, employment and environmental factors in health policy.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to increasing the amount of time people spend in good health and to preventing premature deaths, with an ambitious commitment to halve the healthy life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest regions.
Our 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out a reimagined service designed to tackle inequalities in both access and outcomes, as well as to give everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, the means to engage with the health service on their own terms.
The 10-Year Health Plan and the Environmental Improvement Plan set out how the Government will take action to reduce exposure to harmful emissions of air pollutants. This includes action on domestic burning, on which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have recently launched a consultation.
The 10-Year Health Plan also sets out actions to address poor quality housing and improve the standard of rented homes, alongside £15 billion of investment announced in the Warm Homes Plan. £5 billion of this will be targeted at low-income and fuel poor households. This will help to make homes warmer, more comfortable, and more energy-efficient, which in turn will improve health and reduce health inequalities.
Further to this, the Government recognises that good-quality employment is an important determinant of good health. Sir Charlie Mayfield has submitted the Keep Britain Working review, which highlights how crucial it is to support people to stay healthy and in work.
In partnership with the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Work and Pensions, we are rapidly translating Sir Charlie’s key recommendations into action.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what indicators they use to measure progress in reducing health inequalities; and how those metrics inform policy and funding decisions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with a vision of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background or location, live longer, healthier lives.
We remain committed to reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the richest and poorest, an ambitious commitment that shows the Government is serious about tackling health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health. Indicators to monitor progress in health inequalities are measured in key data outcomes, such as the life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas, produced by the Office for National Statistics.
The Government bases decisions on a robust evidence base. For example, we know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practices (GPs) serving in deprived parts of England receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios. This is why we are currently reviewing the formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
We are targeting key metrics such as the HLE gap to enable cross-Government action on primary prevention such as regulation of tobacco, controlling air pollution, and tackling poverty. We also support NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach which targets action to reduce health inequalities in the most deprived 20% of the population and improve outcomes for groups that experience the worst access, experience, and outcomes within the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have undertaken of the distribution of healthcare professionals across regions; and how workforce planning reflects areas of greatest health needs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are a range of sources that present data detailing how staff working in National Health Service roles are distributed across England. These published sources include, but are not limited to, information on the trust and region of staff employed by NHS trusts and integrated care boards, information on vacancies in the NHS, and information on general medical practice staff. This information is available on the NHS.UK website.
The forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out further detail on how we will ensure the NHS has the right staff, in the right places, to deliver high quality care for patients when they need it.
Workforce planning for medical staff already means that Medical Foundation and Specialty training posts are allocated across the United Kingdom to support workforce needs, including in rural and hard to recruit areas. While some locations have historically found recruitment more challenging, we now have fewer vacancies in the Foundation Programme. NHS England is working with a number of medical schools to pilot the allocation of students directly to their local foundation schools.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of public health funding in reducing rates of preventable illnesses in disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Public Health Grant supports local authorities to deliver vital public health services that focus on reducing preventable illnesses through services such as smoking cessation, drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery, health visiting, and sexual health clinics. Public Health Grant allocations are weighted heavily towards deprivation, with per capita funding for the most deprived local authority more than two times greater than that for the least deprived.
More than £13.4 billion will be consolidated into the Public Health Grant to local authorities, and a retained business rates arrangement with Greater Manchester local authorities, over the next three years beginning in 2026/27. This is a 5.6% total cash increase over the period, on top of 5.5% cash growth in 2025/26.
The National Health Service also funds important public health services, including national screening and immunisation programmes. In doing so, NHS England has regard to the need to reduce inequalities both in access to services and in health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of digital exclusion on access to healthcare services, including booking appointments and accessing remote consultations.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations must ensure that all patients have equitable access to care, and that decisions or policies do not unfairly disadvantage people or lead to an increase in inequalities. All NHS organisations are legally obliged to not discriminate.
This means that although we promote digital first services to those who choose to use them, a non-digital solution should be available for those patients who cannot or do not wish to engage digitally to ensure continued, equitable access to care.
These non-digital routes must be available for all services provided by NHS organisations.
We are working to improve access to digital services, outcomes, and experiences for the widest range of people, based on their preferences. Digital health tools should be part of a wider offering that includes face-to-face support with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have undertaken of the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and the prevalence of mental health conditions, particularly among children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Research recently completed and funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre has found that socioeconomic inequalities in children’s mental health are evident by age five and persist throughout childhood and adolescence. Further information is available at the following link: