Asked by Lord Robathan To ask Her Majesty’s Government to
what extent they attribute the slowing in the growth of life
expectancy identified by Sir Michael Marmot to health issues
related to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes. Baroness Chisholm of
Owlpen (Con) My Lords, we agree with Sir Michael that it is
difficult to draw conclusions about...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent they
attribute the slowing in the growth of life expectancy
identified by Sir Michael Marmot to health issues related
to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes.
-
(Con)
My Lords, we agree with Sir Michael that it is difficult to
draw conclusions about the causes of the slowing of growth
in life expectancy at this stage. We will follow further
research with interest. A number of factors contribute to
the length of people’s lives, including having and
maintaining a healthy weight. We know that obesity is a
leading cause of serious diseases such as type 2 diabetes,
heart disease and some cancers.
-
(Con)
My Lords, in the United States life expectancy is now
declining. Where America leads, we often follow. There,
there are no party political points made about this but
rather a general acceptance that the major factor, among
others, is obesity and linked conditions such as type 2
diabetes and heart disease. Will Her Majesty’s Government
please redouble their efforts to educate the population,
especially in schools and the NHS where they have
authority, about the benefits of healthy eating and taking
exercise in an attempt to avert the innumerable individual
tragedies this will lead to and the terrible consequences
for our health service and society?
-
We take obesity extremely seriously and have a lot of
initiatives going forward such as introducing a soft drinks
industry levy, which will come into effect in April. The
important thing could be harnessing new technology. We need
to make sure that we can get to people, particularly young
people. We will work with Public Health England on good
initiative ideas, and with commercial players to
investigate opportunities to bring forward a suite of
applications that enable consumers to make the best use of
technology and data to inform their eating decisions.
-
(LD)
My Lords, in the SACN report, the variation between
different groups was seen to be quite unacceptable. For
example, in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the
difference between different demographic groups for men was
16 years. To what does the Minister attribute this
inequality and what do the Government intend to do about
it?
-
It is definitely true that inequality has a part to play
but it is interesting that it is due not only to funding.
While I was researching this, I noticed comparative
statistics on life expectancy at birth across the G7
nations. Those show no direct correlation between GDP
expenditure and health outcomes. For instance, the USA
spent 16.6% of its GDP on healthcare but has the lowest
life expectancy at 78 years. Italy spends the least at only
9.1% of its GDP and has the second highest life expectancy
at 82 years. Diet and lifestyle—which everybody has a
responsibility for—go a long way in playing a part in this.
-
(CB)
Surely the Minister agrees that the point the noble
Baroness, Lady Walmsley, is making is not a comparison
between how much is spent per head on healthcare but about
the poverty that gives rise to the inequalities that lead
to disparities in life expectancy. She is drawing attention
to that basic poverty, aside from the need to have
well-funded health services.
-
That is exactly why the NHS is spending an increase of £8
billion in real terms between 2020 and 2021, and why public
health funding has been ring-fenced and the grant will
remain in place for 2017 and 2018. We have also been
committed to the Healthy Start scheme and provided an
estimated £60 million-worth of vouchers to families on low
incomes across England in 2015-16. These can be exchanged
for fresh or frozen fruit, veg and milk, and provide free
vitamins that support intake during pregnancy and early
years. An average of 480,000 children benefited from the
issue of these vouchers every four weeks last year.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, does the noble Baroness accept Public Health
England’s view that sugar in alcohol is a major contributor
to obesity? I welcome the Government’s announcement this
week of a drugs strategy. When will they turn their
attention to the alcohol strategy, which is now well out of
date and badly in need of attention?
-
We have taken forward initiatives, and public information
about the guidelines is included in Public Health England’s
“One You” campaign, which aims to motivate people to take
steps to improve their health through action on the main risk
factors such as smoking, inactivity and alcohol consumption.
It includes a drinks tracker app to help drinkers identify
risky behaviour and lower their alcohol consumption. Spending
on alcohol services for adults has gone up from £200 million
in 2014-15 to £230 million in 2015-16.
-
(Con)
My Lords, if poverty is a factor in diabetes, how are we to
deal with the matter in the north-east, which was the subject
of the first Question? We have pumped in money there but seen
in last week’s figures that the north/south divide in
prosperity is still as strong as ever.
-
That is why we confirmed before the election that the
ring-fenced grant would remain in place for this year and
next, transferring responsibility to local government. It has
created an opportunity to join up public health with the
funding streams for local services such as housing and
economic regeneration, in the interests of improving the
health of the local population. Local authority public health
spend is in addition to the money the NHS spends on
prevention.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, Michael Marmot’s report emphasises the important
role that dementia has played in the near halving of the
increase in life-expectancy levels since 2010, because of the
sudden and sustained increase in older deaths. Dementia and
Alzheimer’s are now the leading cause of death among women
aged over 80 and men aged over 85. How does the Government’s
insistence that money is going into the system to tackle this
square with the evidence in the report that health and social
care spending is going down, at a time of rising health needs
linked to the ageing population, and Sir Michael’s own
comments that financial settlements have been “miserly”? What
will the Government do to address the Alzheimer’s Society’s
comments on the report? It said that,
“the chronic lack of funding to the social care system … is
devastating people with dementia”,
and that action is needed,
“before the care system collapses entirely”.
-
Dementia is such a depressing disease for anybody to have. It
affects not only those who have it, who are incredibly
frightened, but their loved ones, who have to care for
someone who becomes a completely different person in front of
them.
The Challenge on Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan, which was
published in March 2016, sets out the actions that the
Government and key stakeholders will be taking in order to
implement the 2020 challenge. It sets out how the Government
will put the views and lived experience of people with
dementia and their carers at the heart of our delivery
strategy by establishing a new dementia 2020 citizens
engagement programme. The Government have already invested an
additional £2 billion to put social care on a more stable
footing and alleviate short-term pressures across the
healthcare system.
Every department has to take responsibility for what is going
on with obesity in this country. It affects all
departments—the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport, the Department of Health and every other
department—and we need to make a joined-up effort to ensure
that we tackle the crisis of obesity in this country.
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