Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential health impacts of means-testing the winter fuel payment.

No such discussions took place.

The Government is committed to a preventative approach to public health. Keeping people warm and well at home and improving the quality of new and existing homes will play an essential part in enabling people to live longer, healthier lives and reducing pressures on the NHS.

The UK Health Security Agency publishes the Adverse Weather and Health Plan for England, which sets out a framework for action to protect the population from harm to their health from adverse weather including excess cold and outlines the health risks of cold homes.

Each year the NHS makes robust plans for expected winter pressures. It is important that NHS trusts and local authorities take a joined-up approach to winter planning across the health and care system. NHS England and DHSC wrote to local authorities and NHS trusts on 16 September to set out a national approach to 2024/25 winter planning, and the key steps to be taken to support the delivery of high-quality care for patients this winter.