Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to assess (a) the social determinants of ill health and (b) the measures necessary to address any causes.

The Government’s Health Mission commits to building a National Health Service fit for the future, including through a shift from treatment to prevention. To support the mission, we are taking a range of action which will address the underlying causes of ill health.

Relevant cross-Government activity includes work to develop a new fuel poverty strategy, beginning with a consultation which runs until 4 April, publication in December 2024 of a revised National Planning Policy Framework, giving local authorities stronger, clearer powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools and where young people congregate, the establishment of a cross-Government child poverty taskforce, and commitment we made in the English Devolution White Paper, published in December 2024, to introduce a new statutory health and health inequalities duty for strategic authorities.

The Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health and Social Care operate a Joint Work and Health Directorate, in recognition of the significant link between work and health, and to improve employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions.