As part of the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, aka 'Fair Society Healthy Lives': (Marmot Review), a number of expert Task Groups were set up to provide evidence and preliminary policy proposals in key areas of interest for the Review. This element of the work came under the umbrella of the 'Working Committee 1'.

Working Committee 1 (WC 1) was asked to identify new evidence in the key policy areas where action is likely to be most effective in reducing health inequalities in the short (2010–15), medium (2016–19) and long term (2020 and beyond). WC 1 assessed evidence about the efficacy of interventions to reduce health inequalities in nine policy areas:

1. Early child development and education
2. Employment arrangements and working conditions
3. Social protection
4. Built environment
5. Sustainable development
6. Economic analysis
7. Delivery systems and mechanisms
8. Priority public health conditions
9. Social inclusion and social mobility.

This Committee made recommendations identifying potentially effective actions in reducing health inequalities for Working Committees 2 and 3 to develop. The Committee ran from January to May 2009.

The Economics Task Group consisted of Peter C. Smith (Chair), John Appleby, Ronald Labonté and Marc Suhrcke, and their terms of reference were to:

“Examine the ways in which public expenditure and incentive mechanisms of all sorts may influence health inequalities, both directly and indirectly. Report on how policy initiatives might be evaluated and prioritized from a health inequality perspective, and give any specific examples of evaluation relevant to the UK.”

The full report was divided into 4 parts, of which 3 parts are available above, and all 4 are available at the links below:

• Economic Framework
• Early Child Development
• Lone Parents
• Active Labour Market