Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health (The Acheson Report) (1998)

Abstract

The Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health of the incoming Labour government in July 1997 amid concern for widening socio-economic and health inequalities. Sir Donald Acheson, who earlier in his career had worked as a clinician, in epidemiology and has been the Chief Medical Officer to the Department of Health, chaired the inquiry. The investigation was overseen by a Scientific Advisory Group whose members were: David Barker, Jacky Chambers, Hilary Graham, Michael Marmot and Margaret Whitehead. The remit for the inquiry was to review the latest evidence on inequalities in health and in the light of that evidence to identify priority areas for future policy development. These recommendations were to be within the government’s overall financial strategy as well as “beneficial, cost effective and affordable interventions to reduce inequalities in health”. Together with the consultation document Our healthier nation (DoH, 1998) this report shows the continued existence of, and renewed concerns for, inequalities in health. Thus the 20th century came to a close with a government which recognised this social injustice and aimed “to improve the health of the worst off in society and to narrow the health gap”.