Oral Answers to Questions Debate
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Andrew Selous
Main Page: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)Department Debates - View all Andrew Selous's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(7 years, 3 months ago)
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Steve Brine
Respiratory illness affects one in five people in the UK, and it is responsible for around 1 million hospital admissions annually, so it is very much in our interest, as I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Maggie Throup), to implement the outcomes framework. I look forward to having further discussions with the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell), and I am happy to meet him if he wishes.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
Does the Minister, who cares deeply about these issues, share my concern that lung capacity often never recovers after being damaged in childhood? Is not that a powerful reason why we need to make significant progress on air quality issues?
Steve Brine
Absolutely. I have just returned from a meeting of G7 Health Ministers, and one of the subjects under discussion was environmental factors in climate change and its impact on human health. We had challenging discussions on many areas, but air quality and its impact on respiratory disease was not one of them.