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Richard Dallaway's Blog

Longevity in the news (House of Lords, Commons)

When I say “longevity science” I mean in the sense of minimizing chronic disease of ageing, and understanding the systems at work.

It’s in the news again, most recently with Lord Lebedev during the King’s Speech debate in the Lords on 22 July 2024:

Just imagine: by developing therapies that reverse age-related diseases, we can allow people to live not only longer but, more importantly, in good health. The Office for National Statistics estimates that increasing the state pension age could keep people working longer and add £55 billion annually to the UK economy. Just a 20% reduction in six major diseases would lead to an annual GDP boost of almost £20 billion, according to Andrew Scott of the Global Institute. 

You could also argue for encouraging exercise, healthy eating, reducing inequalities and other “interventions” that help without new medical treatments.

Anyway. It’s been looked at in some detail before. There’s the Parliament Ageing: Science, Technology and Healthy Living inquiry from January 2021:

In 2017 the Government identified “Ageing Society” as one of the Industrial Strategy’s four Grand Challenges, with a mission to “ensure that people can enjoy at least five extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035, while narrowing the gap between the experience of the richest and poorest.” We are not on track to meet this target. 

That taken from the summary of the report. It goes on to cite inequality, public health interventions, but also understanding the biology of ageing. There are a ton of recommendations from the report.

Incidentally, there is a government response to the enquiry. It talks about “levelling up” and is, of course, now irrelevant.

Recent news links:

ageing