§ Mr. HesfordTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of current levels of health inequalities in England; and if he will make a statement. [85316]
§ Ms JowellThe Department uses the Health Survey for England, information from the Office for National Statistics and a range of other data collated in the Public Health Common Data Set produced by the National Centre for Health Outcomes Development.
The Government set up an independent inquiry, led by Sir Donald Acheson, which used information from these sources and elsewhere to look specifically at health inequalities. The report of this inquiry was 279W published on 26 November 1998. We have welcomed Sir Donald's report and will publish shortly an action report summarising Government activity to tackle health inequalities alongside the White Paper on our health strategy.
Reducing health inequalities was a main priority in the Green Paper "Our Healthier Nation" and is also a shared priority for health and social services in National Priorities Guidance that we issued last year. Health inequalities will be a key focus of Health Improvement programmes which are being developed at local level.