Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential long-term impact of the cost of living on life expectancy; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce regional disparities in life expectancy.

The Government is mindful of potential interactions between cost of living pressures and health, which is one of the reasons we are delivering cost of living support worth an average of £3,700 per household between 2022 and 2025. The Government is committed to its levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.

In January 2023 we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will be a direction setting document which aims to pave the way for further action towards integrated care, coordinated around the needs of people, to address our aims of improving healthy life expectancy, reduce pressure on the National Health Service, and reduce ill-health related labour market inactivity. It will emphasise the importance of working with local services and organisations to address disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission. Our intention is to publish the Major Conditions Strategy in Spring 2024.