Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of people experiencing insulin resistance.

Lifestyle interventions that promote weight loss and physical activity, such as the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, will address insulin resistance and improve insulin sensitivity.

A number of stated intentions in the NHS Long Term Plan also serve to address insulin resistance in individuals.

These include:

- Targeted support and access to weight management services in primary care for people with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or hypertension with a Body Mass Index of 30 or over (adjusted appropriately for ethnicity);

- The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme which supports those at high risk of type 2 diabetes. A joint commitment by NHS England, Public Health England and Diabetes UK, the programme is the largest undertaking of its kind in the world and over 100,000 people have already benefited since its introduction in 2016. In many areas demand has outstripped supply, and it has proven highly effective. NHS England is now committing to fund a doubling of the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme over the next five years, including a new digital option to widen patient choice and target inequality;

- Medical research has shown that some people with type 2 diabetes can achieve remission through adoption of a very low calorie diet. NHS England will test an NHS programme supporting very low calorie diets for obese people with type 2 diabetes; and

- Together with professional bodies and universities, NHS England will ensure nutrition has a greater place in professional education training.