Loneliness is a huge public health issue and tackling it could transform health and wellbeing.

Watch Lilian’s first question from the frontbench since 2016, in Culture, Media and Sport Questions, where she raises the need for government to refresh their loneliness strategy:

Lilian Greenwood MP: When the Government released their national strategy in 2018, we had a far more limited understanding of loneliness, its consequences and the effectiveness of interventions than we do now.

However, despite six years of hard work and good initiatives, the problem has got worse; the level of loneliness has risen by half a million since 2020. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) said, the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis have created new pressures, and with charities and local authorities facing higher demand and rising costs, it is increasingly difficult for them to respond.

Given all those challenges, what has the Minister done to prepare for a refreshed national strategy to tackle loneliness?

Response from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society, Stuart Andrew MP: This is a complex area and a lot of the research done since the strategy was launched in 2018 has helped us to understand the issue in a lot more detail.

Chronic loneliness has remained at about the same level, but there is still more work to be done. That is why we are now taking very targeted approaches to specific demographics within our society.

I am also convening a cross-government meeting of Ministers from across Departments to see what more we can do to make sure we are meeting our strategy ambition.