§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what action his Department is currently taking arising from the publication of the Black report, "Inequalities in Health."
§ Mrs. CurrieThe Black report was published in 1980. Since then the Government have made significant increases in the resources available to the Health Service, and the overall health of the nation has continued to improve. Many of the underlying objectives behind the recommendations of the report were in line with the Government's polices set out in "Care in Action", so in many instances the same end has been pursued by different means.
The Government have taken a number of steps to promote good health and to ensure the equitable distribution of health care resources. Unhealthy lifestyles and unhealthy diets create major risks to health. One of the Government's main aims in setting up the Health Education Authority was to give greater emphasis to disease prevention and health promotion. We are determined that all social groups should have the information they need to make wise choices to protect their health. The first major campaign of the new 560W authority, in conjunction with the Government, has been directed at coronary heart disease, which disproportionately affects men from lower socio-economic groups.
The Government have pursued a policy of allocating health authority resources more fairly across the country using the resource allocation working party's approach. Substantial progress has been made in bringing regions closer to their RAWP targets, and this year all regions are within 96 per cent. of target. The review of the RAWP formula has been looking, amongst other issues, at whether the formula should be revised to make it more sensitive to the impact of social deprivation or need for health care.