Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 8221 on Liver Diseases: Screening, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the Government's planned measures on geographic variations in the provision of non-invasive liver scans in community diagnostic centres.

The Government is aware that its planned measures will lead to geographic variation in the provision of non-invasive liver scans in community diagnostic centres (CDCs). This is because it is up to individual National Health Service integrated care boards to determine, based on local need and local diagnostic pathways, whether introduction of non-invasive liver scans in CDCs is necessary.

NHS England is reviewing existing liver fibrosis pathways as part of its wider diagnostic transformation work to determine the best approach for identifying patients at an earlier stage of liver disease. This includes looking at developing a pathway starting in primary care, making use of laboratory-based tests, as well as diagnostics in other settings such as CDCs.