Member

Government amendments 116 and 118 will amend the duty relating to health improvement and health inequalities. The Government recognise the importance of environmental factors to people’s health. The conditions in which people live, the air that they breathe, the green spaces and the waterways—sometimes known as blue spaces—to which they have access are fundamental drivers of health outcomes. The general health determinants set out in clause 43 were not intended to be an exhaustive list, but we think there is an opportunity to clarify what we mean. I am grateful to members of the Bill Committee for their insightful discussion of this topic in Committee, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for raising the importance of environmental protections throughout the Bill’s passage so far.