§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to commission a follow-up study to those conducted by Sir Douglas Black into inequalities in health published in 1980 and 1987. [6994]
§ Mr. HoramSince the publication of the report of the working group on inequalities and health in 1980—known as the Black report after its chairman, Sir Douglas Black—and the review "The Health Divide: Inequalities in Health in the 1980s", published by the then Health Education Council in 1987, the Department of Health has commissioned, and published on 23 October 1995, the report of the sub-group of the chief medical officer's "Health of the Nation" working group on variations in health.
The Department is taking forward recommendations contained in the report and I refer the hon. Member to the replies I gave him on 14 November 1996 at column 335.