A Westminster Hall debate on World Asthma Day is scheduled for Thursday 15 May 2025. The debate will be led by Jim Shannon MP.
Asthma is a common, chronic, noncommunicable disease found in both adults and children. It affects the airways (the trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles), which carry air in and out of the lungs. In people with asthma symptoms the airways can become narrow, due to a tightening of the muscles around the small airways, and inflamed, which can lead to serious breathing difficulties.
Asthma is one of the most common long term chronic health conditions worldwide.
Prevalence data from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) estimates that there were 3,886,879 people over the age of six years diagnosed with asthma in 2023/24, equating to 6.5% of the population in England. DHSC data also shows that, in 2020, there were 1,261 deaths in England from asthma.
The Commons Library’s health conditions interactive dashboard contains constituency-level data and maps on this and other health conditions. This is based on NHS Digital data.
Common symptoms of asthma include:
The NHS emphasises that other conditions can cause the same symptoms as asthma.
Asthma can be very variable; some people may have mild symptoms while in others they be more severe and unrelenting. Equally, some people may experience the disease intermittently, for a limited period, and then have extended periods that are symptom-free.
An asthma diagnosis is based on a person’s medical history, symptoms and diagnostic tests. More detailed information can be found in the NICE’s guideline on Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management, published in November 2024.
Currently, there is no cure for asthma but it is possible to manage the condition so that the symptoms remain under control. The main treatment for asthma is medicines a person breathes in using an inhaler. The exact medicines prescribed will depend on multiple factors, including the type and severity of symptoms. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that there are two main types of inhaler:
The NHS notes that it is not fully understood what causes asthma.
There are, however, factors that can make a person more predisposed to asthma, including their environment, job, family history or genes, and other medical conditions, such as having an allergy-related condition like eczema or hay fever.
Asthma symptoms can occur in response to a ‘trigger’, with common triggers including:
“Asthma attacks” describe an episode when symptoms get much worse and may be life threatening.
World Asthma Day is an annual event organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA); an independent organisation based in Wisconsin, USA. This year, World Asthma Day took place on 6 May and its theme was “Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for All”. Inhaled asthma treatments involve using inhalers (small, handheld devices) that deliver medication directly to the lungs to help control symptoms. GINA reports that lack of availability and high costs can hinder access to inhalers,
In low-middle-income countries, lack of availability or high cost of inhaled medicines, especially inhaled corticosteroid-containing inhalers [anti-inflammatory medication], are major contributors to the fact that 96% of global asthma deaths occur in these countries. Even in high income countries, high costs can mean that many people with asthma have limited access to essential inhaled medicines, resulting in poorly controlled asthma and preventable asthma deaths.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 250 million people worldwide are living with asthma, making it a significant global health burden.
5 March 2025 | UIN 32882
Asked by: Charlie Maynard
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent asthma deaths in school children in England and Wales.
Answering member: Ashley Dalton | Department of Health and Social Care
To reduce avoidable deaths, improve the quality of life for children and young people with asthma, and to raise the profile of this work, NHS England published the first National Bundle of Care for Children and Young People with Asthma in September 2021. Through this workstream, asthma care has received higher prioritisation within systems, regional leadership, system led governance, and increased accountability, to improve outcomes for children and young people in England. Further information on the National Bundle of Care for Children and Young People with Asthma is available at the following link:
The Asthma Friendly Schools Programme has been very successful in embedding asthma knowledge and management within teaching and non-teaching professionals in schools. Initially developed by a team in London, the approach has been shared through networks and nationally led meetings. NHS England has encouraged integrated care systems to develop similar approaches or programmes to ensure representation of their local requirements and to build synergy between healthcare, education, and local authority teams.
As part of the National Bundle of Care, specially designed courses have been developed to educate all professionals, healthcare and non-healthcare, on children and young people with asthma, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/children-and-young-peoples-asthma/
These courses have been extremely popular, and over two years there were over 80,000 first tier completions. 74% of these completions have been by teaching or school staff. Further data can be found at the children and young people’s asthma dashboard and the dashboard for asthma metrics and dispensing.
The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) published a report in December 2024, reviewing the deaths of children and young people with asthma in England between April 2019 and March 2023. Between this period, there were 54 deaths due to asthma. For the second iteration of the National Bundle of Care, NHS England is adapting the structure to include recommendations from the NCMD and develop a more systems first approach with additional resources for ongoing support. Further information on the NCMD’s report is available at the following link:
23 January 2025 | UIN 24427
Asked by: Jim Shannon
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the severe asthma service specification in ensuring eligible severe asthma patients are able to access biologic medicines.
Answering member: Karin Smyth | Department of Health and Social Care
NHS England’s current severe asthma service specification is being revised by the Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group. The revised specification will support the management of patients who require further investigation and treatments, including biological medicines. The specification will also be updated to reference the most recent clinical guidelines such as the British Thoracic Society, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network’s asthma guideline, covering diagnosing, monitoring, and managing asthma in adults, young people, and children. It is expected to improve outcomes for people with asthma and identify early those who require further investigation and treatments, including biologic medicines. Eligibility for biologics is governed by the NICE’s Technology Appraisals, which make recommendations for the National Health Service on whether treatments represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund NICE-recommended treatments.
14 November 2024 | Westminster Hall | 756 cc294WH-316WH
7 December 2021 | Westminster Hall | 705 cc22WH-43WH
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