Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to work towards the elimination of dementia among senior citizens in the next 20 years.

At the G8 summit in December 2013, the G8 countries agreed a new international approach to dementia research to realise the ambition to identify a cure or disease modifying therapy by 2025 and to increase collectively and significantly their funding for dementia research.

The Government has doubled research spending on dementia, with a commitment to maintain this level of spending at £60 million a year to 2020, with an ambition for overall spending on research from all sectors to double by 2025. Much of this investment is in research to better understand the nature of dementia, to inform development of future treatments and ways to prevent the onset of the condition.

A key aspiration in the Government’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 is to improve public awareness and understanding of the factors which can increase the risk of developing dementia and of how people can reduce their risk by living more healthily.

Public Health England (PHE) has published improved guidance on reducing dementia risk, including ‘Health Matters: A resource for health professionals and local authorities’ that makes the case for action in midlife to promote healthy lifestyles that can reduce the risk of dementia.

PHE also increases awareness of dementia risk reduction through programmes for the public, such as the NHS Health Check.