Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve diabetes (a) prevention, (b) care and (c) treatment.

Preventing diabetes is a complex task, and requires multi-faceted action. Prevention involves collaboration in order to tackle the underlying issues such obesity, poor diets, and lifestyle issues. We have several programmes in place to help reduce the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, such as the NHS Health Check, England’s flagship cardiovascular disease programme for those aged 40 to 74 years old, which aims to identify people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and some cases of dementia, in order to signpost them to behavioural support such as weight management and clinical treatment if needed.

Furthermore, those identified of being at risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be referred to the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, a nine-month programme that supports people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes to reduce their risk through changing their behavior. The programme is highly effective, cutting the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 37% for people completing the programme, compared to those who do not attend.

For those young adults, those aged 18 years old and over, who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and who are overweight or obese, the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme is also available. The programme supports individuals to lose weight, improve their blood sugar levels, reduce diabetes-related medication, and put their diabetes into remission. 32% of patients who completed this programme had put their type 2 diabetes into remission following participation. Further information on the programme is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/diabetes/treatment-care/diabetes-remission/

For patients with established diabetes, NHS England achieved their long-term plan objective that 20% of all type 1 diabetes patients are in receipt of flash glucose monitoring as of April 2021. Progress continues to be made for patients with type 1 diabetes, with over 65% of people currently using flash glucose monitoring to help manage their condition. NHS England can confirm that over 200,000 eligible people living with diabetes benefit from real-time continuous glucose monitoring.

Furthermore, following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) recommendations on access to hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology last year, NICE and NHS England agreed on a phased implementation period for HCL over five-years, with roll-out commencing in April 2024.

All adults with diabetes are recommended, as prescribed by NICE, to enroll in the eight annual health checks, which include: blood sugars (HbA1c); blood pressure; cholesterol; foot examination; kidney function; urinary albumin; body mass index; and smoking. Adherence to these checks have been associated with reduced emergency admissions, amputations, retinopathy, and mortality. The proportion of people with type 1 diabetes who are receiving all eight care processes had recovered back to 43.3% in 2023/24 and 62.3% for type 2 diabetes, compared to 27% and 37%, respectively, in 2020/21.