To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's programmes to tackle non-communicable diseases in developing countries.

The Department for International Development's health focus is to improve the provision of basic health services for the poorest by supporting health systems strengthening, health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. Increasing coverage, equity, access and quality within the health system will strengthen services to identify, prioritise and address all causes of ill health including non-communicable diseases. We regularly monitor our programmes to ensure that they are meeting their objectives.

The Global Status report on Non-communicable diseases 2010, published in 2011 by the World Health Organisation (WHO), contains information on the most cost effective approaches for tackling non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as well as information on the availability of procedures to treat NCDs in the different regions of the world.