Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on producing impact assessments on health inequalities in policy development.
We are determined to address the long-standing inequalities that exist and level up across society, which requires a whole of Government approach. The Department works closely with other Government departments to raise awareness of health inequalities and departments in turn are responsible for carrying out equalities impact assessments under the Public Sector Equality Duty for all key Government policy and legislation. Recent examples of this include impact assessments for the Coronavirus Act 2020 and COVID-19 policies which considered, where relevant, the potential impact on ethnic minorities and factors such as deprivation and intergenerational housing.