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 ensure policy convergence between risk factors for non-communicable diseases, including alcohol, smoking and obesity.

Over 40% of ill-health and early death is due to preventable risk factors, with more than half of this total related to tobacco, alcohol and diet. Addressing these major risk factors, including where these issues converge, forms part of the ambition to increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 and to reduce the difference between local areas by 2030.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities was established in 2021 to provide expertise in public health, evidence and policy to ensure informed and integrated national policy making and local delivery.