Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve early detection and management of high blood pressure; and whether he plans to expand community-based screening initiatives.

The single greatest risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is raised blood pressure and as set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a modern service framework for CVD later this year. The framework will identify the best evidenced interventions, set clear quality standards, drive innovation in CVD prevention and management, and reduce unwarranted variation.

We have invested heavily in hypertension case-finding for those over 40 years old in community pharmacies. As part of the service, pharmacies have delivered nearly 4.2 million blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring checks since October 2021 and as of August 2024, 7,641 pharmacies were actively delivering the service.