Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) inequalities in health, and (2) any increase in structural racism, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they are taking in response.

The gap in the number of years different groups of people live in good health is stark and unacceptable. Health disparities exist across a variety of conditions and contribute to variations in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy.

In July 2020, the then Prime Minister appointed the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities to consider the causes of persistent disparities and barriers that different ethnic minority groups face, including the role of racism. The Commission published its report in March 2021, and the Government's response, ‘Inclusive Britain’, was published in March 2022.

In June 2020, Public Health England published the ‘COVID-19: review of disparities in risks and outcomes’ report, outlining the impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities. In response, the then Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asked the Minister for Equalities, with support from the Cabinet Office Race Disparity Unit (RDU), to lead cross-government work to look at why COVID-19 was having a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups and to consider how the government response to this could be improved. The ‘Final report on progress to address COVID-19 health inequalities’ was published in December 2021.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities was established in October 2021 to work across the Department, the rest of Government, the healthcare system, local Government and industry to be creative about how we shift our focus towards preventing ill health, in particular in the places and communities where there are the most significant disparities.

In the white paper ‘Levelling Up the United Kingdom’, published in February 2022, the government set out a levelling up health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest by 2030, and increase HLE by five years by 2035. A range of action is being taken forward which will support progress on the health mission, including the development of a Major Conditions Strategy on which an interim report will be published in the summer.