Health Inequalities and Socioeconomic Inequality

That the Parliament notes the recently released Long-Term Monitoring of Health Inequalities report; is dismayed by the report’s findings that, between 1999-2000 and 2007-08, the significant differences between the most and least deprived sectors of the Scottish population in relation to eight parameters (life expectancy, premature mortality, mental wellbeing, coronary heart disease, cancer incidence and mortality, first admission for alcohol-related problems in those under the age of 75 and all-cause mortality in those aged 15 to 44) have either remained static or increased, at least in relative terms; believes that such health inequalities must be addressed by tackling socioeconomic inequality, and therefore calls on the UK Government to reverse the proposed regressive rise in VAT, adopt effective measures to reduce tax evasion and avoidance, which it believes would include employing many more HM Revenue and Customs staff, and to remove GDP as the major indicator of societal progress, a measure that it considers to have no proven relationship to health and wellbeing in developed countries.