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Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, when the Bill was originally written, it paid attention to health inequalities in London. Therefore, although I understood what the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, said about public health generally, I would not like to see reference to health inequalities removed from the Bill entirely, which is what her Amendment No. 33 would do. It would mean taking out ““health inequalities”” everywhere and substituting ““public health””. It is clear that there are very large health inequalities in London; there are parts of London where they are really quite obvious. When I asked some questions in the House about stroke, I was in touch with the Stroke Association, which provided me with a lot of information about the way in which strokes affected people from ethnic minorities particularly. I am not referring only to stroke, of course; there are other diseases from which ethnic minorities suffer more than others. In the briefing that I have received from the Mayor of London, he referred to health inequalities and referred to the differences between life expectancies in various parts of the capital. Those differences are quite remarkable. You have a much better chance of a long life if you live where I do, for example, in West Hampstead, than if you live in a less salubrious place, such as a rundown housing estate. These are important issues. I should not like to see health inequalities removed entirely from the Bill, no matter what has been said about public health—which I quite understand. To remove them from the Bill would be quite wrong.