Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a commissioner for older people and ageing.

The Department has no current plans to assess the potential merits of appointing a commissioner for older people and ageing, as the needs of older people and healthy ageing are covered by the NHS Health Check and an ambitious prevention agenda to reduce individuals’ risk of ill health later in life.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is taking targeted actions to tackle the most common preventable diseases, improving access and uptake of prevention services, and embedding prevention across health and care. For example, encouraging people in mid-life to stop smoking, reduce their alcohol consumption and improve their diet to help reduce the risk of developing dementia, disability and frailty in later life.

Finally, the Government recently announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy which will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancers, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill-health and musculoskeletal conditions. An interim report will be published in the summer.