Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 19 February (HL13296), whether work on producing a cross-addiction strategy has now resumed; and if so, when such a strategy will be published.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work on developing the addiction strategy will commence later this year and we expect this to be published in 2022. This will build on current Departmental work related to drugs, alcohol and gambling addiction.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards producing a cross-addiction strategy which includes consideration of alcohol addiction.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work on the cross-Government addiction strategy was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and will resume this year. We will consider the evidence around alcohol dependence and harms and what further action is needed as this work progresses.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they made towards the development of the National Institute for Health Protection.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Plans are on track to establish the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) in spring 2021 with staff and systems moving into the new organisation over the following months. The recruitment process for the NIHP Chief Executive is ongoing and the outcome will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps the Department for Health and Social Care has taken to address the level of obesity in socio-economically deprived communities; and whether any such steps will be taken as part of their strategy set out in their policy paper Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan including our ambition to halve the number of children living with obesity and significantly reducing the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030. We are also working with councils to reduce obesity locally through a range of schemes.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions the Department for Health and Social Care has held about the future of Public Health England’s remit for (1) obesity prevention, and (2) weight management, services,
Answered by Lord Bethell
Alongside work to establish the National Institute for Health Protection, the Government continues to focus on health improvement and preventing ill-health, including tackling obesity, with support from the expert teams currently located in Public Health England (PHE). We do not envisage any changes to where those responsibilities will sit before spring 2021.
We have established an external stakeholder advisory group to help us develop our thinking on the best future arrangements for prevention, health improvement and delivery of public healthcare services including where PHE’s health improvement functions would be best placed in order to support the public health system and improve the public’s health. We will be engaging more widely over the coming months.
Through Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives we are delivering a range of measures on weight management, including expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their policy paper Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July, when they will publish their plans to expand weight management services available through the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Alongside work to establish the National Institute for Health Protection, the Government continues to focus on health improvement and preventing ill-health, including tackling obesity, with support from the expert teams currently located in Public Health England (PHE). We do not envisage any changes to where those responsibilities will sit before spring 2021.
We have established an external stakeholder advisory group to help us develop our thinking on the best future arrangements for prevention, health improvement and delivery of public healthcare services including where PHE’s health improvement functions would be best placed in order to support the public health system and improve the public’s health. We will be engaging more widely over the coming months.
Through Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives we are delivering a range of measures on weight management, including expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the policy paper Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July, what steps they are taking to help people with severe and complex obesity maintain a healthy weight following weight loss.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Alongside work to establish the National Institute for Health Protection, the Government continues to focus on health improvement and preventing ill-health, including tackling obesity, with support from the expert teams currently located in Public Health England (PHE). We do not envisage any changes to where those responsibilities will sit before spring 2021.
We have established an external stakeholder advisory group to help us develop our thinking on the best future arrangements for prevention, health improvement and delivery of public healthcare services including where PHE’s health improvement functions would be best placed in order to support the public health system and improve the public’s health. We will be engaging more widely over the coming months.
Through Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives we are delivering a range of measures on weight management, including expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement (1) the proposals contained in Childhood obesity: a plan for action - Chapter 2, published in June 2018, and (2) the recommendations relating to childhood obesity outlined in the Green Paper Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s, published in July 2019.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We published Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives on 27 July. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity, takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan and sets our measures to get the nation fit and healthy, protect against COVID-19 and protect the National Health Service.
In addition, Public Health England has launched the Better Health campaign, which will call on people to embrace a healthier lifestyle and to lose weight if they need to, supported by a range of evidence-based tools and apps providing advice on how to reduce the waistline.
A copy of Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives is attached.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports of the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has on people living with obesity, what plans they have to develop a campaign to encourage people to make healthy choices; with whom they have engaged on the development of any such plans; and whether they intend to publish those plans.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We published Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives on 27 July. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity, takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan and sets our measures to get the nation fit and healthy, protect against COVID-19 and protect the National Health Service.
In addition, Public Health England has launched the Better Health campaign, which will call on people to embrace a healthier lifestyle and to lose weight if they need to, supported by a range of evidence-based tools and apps providing advice on how to reduce the waistline.
A copy of Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives is attached.
Asked by: Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the evidence that informed their decision to include people with a BMI over 40 on the list of those most at risk of worse outcomes from COVID-19; and why people with a BMI lower than 40 who are overweight or obese were not in included in that category.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or above is not one of the specific medical conditions that expert doctors in England identified as placing someone at greatest risk of severe illness from COVID-19 (clinically extremely vulnerable) and requiring them to shield.
It is, however, one of the health conditions identified as putting someone at a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 (clinically vulnerable). Those with BMI over 40 were eligible for a free influenza vaccination last winter, and that is the basis for including them in the clinically vulnerable cohort.