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 health inequalities (a) in general and (b) for children.

The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with healthy life expectancy varying widely across and between communities. Through our Health Mission, we are focused on addressing the wider determinants of health to improve healthy life expectancy for all and to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between different regions of England.

Addressing healthcare inequalities is a fundamental part of the Health Mission and the workstreams of the 10-Year Health Plan. The 11 working groups have now concluded their development that will feed into the plan. These working groups included a dedicated workstream focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, however this was also fully considered by each workstream.

Tackling health inequalities will also be central to the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and the ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. As a first step, in 2025/26, £126 million is being invested into Family Hubs and Start for Life services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.

We are also developing an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy which will also help reduce health inequalities for children. The Department is working closely with the Child Poverty Ministerial Taskforce to reduce child poverty, tackle its root causes, and give every child the best start in life.