Prevention of Ill Health: Government Vision Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Prevention of Ill Health: Government Vision

Paul Williams Excerpts
Monday 5th November 2018

(6 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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There are many ways to make one’s food taste good and make it healthy, too.

Paul Williams Portrait Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)
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It is astonishing that there was no mention in the statement of poverty as a cause of ill health. Is the Secretary of State really so out of touch with communities in this country that he does not see how austerity is making people ill?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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The statement talks all about the wider determinants of health. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to talk about poverty specifically, it is absolute poverty, not relative poverty, that has a link to ill health, and that has fallen.