Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the British Medical Journal article Scurvy—a re-emerging disease with the rising cost of living and number of bariatric surgical procedures, published on 22 September, what steps they are taking to ensure those in lowest socioeconomic brackets have access to fresh fruit and vegetables.

The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four years old.

Scurvy results from the prolonged absence of vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, from the diet and is rare in the United Kingdom. Most cases of scurvy, and malnutrition, will be secondary to another health condition which may impact on nutritional needs or impact on a person’s ability to eat and drink, rather than it solely being caused by poor or inadequate dietary intake.