Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) long-term funding for and (b) targeted support on (i) levels of (i) cardiovascular disease and (ii) associated health inequalities.

The Government is committed to tackling the biggest killers, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). To deliver on the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years, we are working closely with NHS England to understand both the scale of the challenge and the opportunities for progress across the prevention, treatment, and management of CVD and associated health inequalities.

We are providing targeted support through recent changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework in 2025/26, where £198 million has been repurposed to target CVD prevention. Knowing that prevention is better than treatment, we have also raised the upper threshold of CVD indicators in order to stimulate performance gains and improve CVD outcomes for patients.

Furthermore, the Government continues to invest in the NHS Health Check programme, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, and in the development of the new NHS Health Check Online service. By providing a more convenient, accessible services, we will free up primary care capacity to target resources towards underserved groups.

The Government has committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, expected to be published in summer 2025.