Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the top five causes of (1) disability, and (2) premature death, in England; and how the NHS plans to mitigate or reduce each cause.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study provides a comprehensive picture of mortality and disability across countries, time, age, and sex. It quantifies health loss from hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors, so that health systems can be improved and disparities eliminated.

According to the data for England published by the GBD study in 2019, the top 5 causes of years lived with disability for England were low back pain, diabetes, depressive disorders, headache disorders and falls.

Data for 2022 for England indicates that the five leading causes of death aged under 75 were cancers, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, deaths from external causes, and digestive system diseases.

On the 24 January 2023, we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. This strategy will explore how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England, reduce pressure on the NHS and reduce ill-health related labour market inactivity.

To deliver on these objectives, the strategy will focus on tackling the six major conditions groups – cancers, mental ill-health, cardiovascular disease (including stroke and diabetes), dementia, chronic respiratory diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders – that account for around 60% of ill-health and early death in England.

Focusing on these groups of conditions that contribute most to mortality and morbidity will allow us to focus our efforts on the key actions needed to achieve our Levelling-Up mission to gain five extra years of Healthy Life Expectancy by 2035.