Prevention of Ill Health: Government Vision

Debate between Paul Beresford and Matt Hancock

Monday 5th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) (Con)]

As my right hon. Friend is aware, I am a very part-time dentist and I am also a supporter of the British Fluoridation Society. Probably the very biggest reason for children attending hospital for general anaesthetic is to extract decayed, rotten, abscessing teeth caused by dental caries. Fluoridation of the water supplies is a very effective means of prevention. Does he support fluoridation of the water supplies, and what can he do to actively promote it, because, at the moment, it is in only 10% of our supplies?

[Matt Hancock]

My hon. Friend is of course a dentist, and I would love to listen to him speak in more detail about what we can do to get this right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Beresford and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Funding is available from lots of sources, not just taxpayers. Nevertheless, he will have noted that I have already started talking about the importance of getting funding out into the community, whether that is through social prescribing or wider public health efforts, to make sure that we try to tackle health problems at source and keep people out of hospital as much as possible, rather than spending all the money on sorting things out later in hospital.

[Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) (Con)]

5. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the provision of the HPV vaccine to boys.