Waltham Forest Council has responded to questions raised by a national charity over the performance of its public health team.

Last week, Diabetes UK asked the authority what it has done to ensure that the NHS Health Check is given to residents after figures indicated that 5,700 adults in the borough could have diabetes without knowing it.

The charity said that since the council took over responsibility for providing the checks, less than half of adults were being seen.

However, a spokeswoman from the council said that they will release their official figures this week and that the public health team has managed to engage half of the borough’s GPs to provide the check.

She said: “The public health team aims to support the NHS and other health providers in improving the prevention, and increasing early diagnosis, of long-term conditions such as diabetes.

“The data from 2013/14, the first year public health has been the responsibility of the Council, is due to be released this week.

"Based on the data in the year to date, we are seeing a large improvement from the previous year, putting us more in line with the national average.”