Ms Suzanne Costello:

We are funded by the Department of Health, and our work programme each year is in support of its objectives. We seek to find commonality and synergy because we are both often aiming for the same thing. That forms the bulk of our work programme every year.

We work very closely with the two Departments through the chief medical officers' divisions of both, where their focus on health improvement is, but we have a wide-ranging group of so-called stakeholders who work closely with academics and policy experts. We pride ourselves on the fact that we are very well networked across Europe and Britain, and that brings a huge amount to our work.

One of our key roles is to engage with the leading thinkers in this area in order that we can bring that to our work. Our research relates to policy and policy development and recommendations. It is also aimed, as much as possible, at influencing policy and policymakers to focus on health inequalities and health equity, but also to understand what the drivers are. While political representatives are very informed on this, many members of the public do not understand that a lot of their health and well-being is not always a choice of personal discipline or going to the gym a lot. Many health outcomes are influenced by the environment in which people live. That should take some of the sort of self-flagellation off people. It can be very hard to stay in peak condition or live to optimum health unless that environment is supporting you. The aim of the work we do is to make sure that the environment in which people live is, as much as possible, supporting their health and well-being and allowing them to flourish with their families and seek optimal health. Obviously, that supports the economy and society. To a degree, it also takes some of the pressure off the healthcare services that are so important for us all.