Health: Chief Medical Officer’s Recommendations

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Monday 21st January 2019 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to implement the recommendations in the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer 2018, published on 21 December 2018.

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, in her most recent annual report, the CMO set out a compelling vision for the future of healthcare by 2040. The Government are carefully considering all the recommendations made in this annual report and, as noble Lords will know, have taken substantive and sustained action on the contents of all previous reports. Indeed, the NHS Long Term Plan is addressing many of the issues that are at the heart of the CMO’s report, such as data, research and prevention.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer. She will know that the CMO’s report was a devastating critique of the state of public health at the moment, showing wide inequalities in health, which have been widening under the current Government. She recommends strong fiscal action to increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol, as well as on foodstuffs with high contents of sugar and salt. The NHS England 10-year plan makes no mention of that. Will the Government accept the CMO’s recommendations?