Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve the collection of data within the NHS at the (a) national and (b) local level on the incidence, prevalence and outcomes of ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.

Psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis are part of group of musculoskeletal conditions referred to collectively as spondyloarthritis. This term also refers to conditions including: reactive arthritis; enteropathic arthritis; and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence advises that spondyloarthritis has a reported prevalence in Western Europe of between 0.8% in 1.7%.

Improving Lives - the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper, published on 31 October 2016, set out the Government’s commitment to work with NHS England to identify opportunities for regular collection of data about incidence, prevalence, clinical activity and outcomes of musculoskeletal conditions and services in England. The Government’s Mandate to NHS England reiterated this commitment. On 30 November 2017 the Government published Improving Lives - The Future of Work, Health and Disability in response to the Green Paper. In building on the commitment in the Green Paper to identify opportunities for routine data collection about musculoskeletal incidence, prevalence, clinical activity, and outcomes, the report set out that a data advisory group, led by Arthritis Research UK, has been examining the issue. On 1 December 2017 the advisory group presented its recommendations to NHS England, which is currently considering the appropriate next steps. Improving Lives - The Future of Work, Health and Disability can be found at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-lives-the-future-of-work-health-and-disability