Healthy Life Expectancy

Baroness Alexander of Cleveden Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reverse recent declines in healthy life expectancy, and to address poverty-related inequalities in life expectancy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is unacceptable that who you are or where you live can impact healthy life expectancy. Reversing the decline in healthy life expectancy is a core part of this Government’s health mission. There is a long way to go but we are making good progress—exceeding our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans and appointments by delivering well over three million, and addressing major health risks that particularly impact more deprived areas.

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her Answer. She may be aware that, this morning, the Health Foundation published a new international benchmarking report. It highlights that, in the 2010s, in all parts of the UK outside London, mortality rates increasingly lagged behind progress in the other 21 countries in the study and that, by 2021, mortality rates in the north-east and north-west of the UK were 20% higher than in the south-west. In light of this, will the Government heed the Health Foundation’s call for a new health inequality strategy that has a particular focus on those parts of the country that have faced long-term industrial decline?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an extremely important point about inequality. The Health Foundation report focusing on the 2010s shines a light on the need to drive action, which we are doing across government through our missions, with a very ambitious goal and the right approach of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions. Although I am certainly very interested in what the Health Foundation report says, further strategy is not needed at this time because of the approach we are taking. But I assure my noble friend that in addressing health inequalities, including in areas of past industrial decline, we will be driving economic growth and removing health-related barriers to health, wealth and prosperity.