Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2025 to Question 25535 on Viral Diseases, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of means-testing the winter fuel payment on the number of cases of (a) flu, (b) covid-19, (c) norovirus and (d) respiratory syncytial virus.

The Department has no current plans to undertake an assessment of the potential impact of means-testing the winter fuel payment on the number of flu, COVID-19, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus cases.

The relationship between cold weather and respiratory illness in general, such as exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, is well established in scientific evidence. However, a link from cold snaps, or housing temperature, to respiratory infections does not have the same evidential base.

Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/surveillance-of-influenza-and-other-seasonal-respiratory-viruses-in-the-uk-winter-2023-to-2024/surveillance-of-influenza-and-other-seasonal-respiratory-viruses-in-the-uk-winter-2023-to-2024