• Question by: Elly Baker
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): OK. Let us move on to Assembly Member Baker. Elly Baker AM: Thanks, Chair. I want to ask about transport and its impact on health. I am going to ask Vicky and Tom to answer this question. Up front, both of you referenced the importance of transport in good health. It is positive to hear that, but certainly in the Health Inequality Strategy there is some focus on active travel, which is of course really important for physical health. There is no recognition of the inherent good that transport has on health. I am thinking in...

• Question by: Neil Garratt
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): OK, moving on, Assembly Member Garratt. Neil Garratt AM: Thanks. Morning. Vicky, in your opening remark you talked about tobacco harm. Currently in Parliament is the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which ultimately takes us to a zero-tobacco society effectively. Obviously, that is a significant curtailment of people’s civil rights. I am interested, does the public health case for that policy, that counter-balances that, is it significant enough to justify it?

• Question by: Zoë Garbett
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Garbett. Zoë Garbett AM: Morning. Thank you for your responses so far. I am finding this really interesting. I want to raise health inequalities for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities. People from these communities live an average 12 years less than the general population. As we have been discussing, a stark inequality. GRTs tell me it is difficult to monitor the health outcomes as the NHS director does not define Gypsy, Roma or Traveller in terms of an ethnicity. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) census asks if health is poor or very...

• Question by: Leonie Cooper
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Sorry to interrupt, the Lib Dems are now out of time. Maybe you will follow up outside the meeting. There was a lot of lenience there. Can we move then to Assembly Member Cooper? Leonie Cooper AM: Thank you very much, Chair. I am very pleased to see everyone here this morning. In your introductory remarks, Tom, you were talking about mental health, you were talking about cardiac health, and you were talking about child health, and we have just been touching on the health of older people as well. One of the innovative, and it...

• Question by: Hina Bokhari OBE
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Bokhari. Hina Bokhari AM: Thank you. I just want to pick up on the previous question on free school meals. The Liberal Democrats are incredibly pleased that there is an extension to free school meals, particularly for those in poverty. This is a victory for our party as well as other campaigners, but we do hope that the Mayor will look into auto-enrolling all eligible pupils.

• Question by: Alessandro Georgiou
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Georgiou. Alessandro Georgiou AM: Thank you and good morning, panel. Dr Coffey, in your professional opinion, both in your current role as an adviser and as a GP, would you say that parks and green spaces are important for mental and physical well-being?

• Question by: Marina Ahmad
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Can I welcome you back to the London Assembly question and answer session on the Mayor’s Health Inequality Strategy. The panel has now been joined by Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Independent Pharmacies Association, welcome to the meeting. Then let us continue with our questioning, I am going to ask Assembly Member Ahmad for a question. Marina Ahmad AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, panel. Dr Coffey, has the Mayor’s groundbreaking universal free school meals (UFSM) policy helped advance the goals of his Health Inequality Strategy in London?

• Question by: Alex Wilson
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): We will go to Assembly Member Wilson and then after that contribution we will have a short break. Alex Wilson AM: Thank you, Chair. My first question will be to you, Dr Coffey, if that is OK. A little while ago I submitted a written question to the Mayor asking about the northeast London Physician Response Unit, which was a unit which provided home emergency medical care for acutely unwell patients and basically avoided the need to take those patients to A&E with the additional cost and stress and grief that that entails. Unfortunately, the funding...

• Question by: Caroline Russell
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): We will pick them up in exchanges of correspondence because it is an interesting debate you started. OK, Assembly Member Russell finally. Caroline Russell AM: Thank you. Thank you very much, Chair. My commiserations to Kevin Fenton and a lot of my questions were going to be directed to him. I am going to need you to slightly work out who to field, who to take things up. I will start with Tom and it is a question about access to toilets. You will be well aware I hope that I and many others think that...

• Question by: Emma Best
• Meeting date: 05 June 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Best. Emma Best AM: Thank you. Tom, can I ask, what are the extent of your representations to the Government around the cancellation of the hospital building plan for London?