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 tackle the link between ageing populations and disability as part of the Government response to the UN high level meeting on universal health coverage.

It is one of the guiding principles of the National Health Service that a person should have access to health services based on clinical need, irrespective of their age or disability. The NHS Constitution reaffirms this as one of the key principles underpinning all that the NHS does.

Additionally, the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty ensures that providers and commissioners of health and care services in the United Kingdom have due regard to the need to take steps to meet the needs of persons who share a relevant protected characteristic that are different from the needs of persons who do not share it. Disability and age are both protected characteristics.