Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating osteoarthritis in each of the last five years.

Information concerning the number of people diagnosed with osteoarthritis on an annual basis is not collected and the Department has made no specific estimate of the cost of osteoarthritis to the NHS. Although some relevant costing data are captured, such as those relating to hip fracture, total costs are not available, as additional costs are incurred out of hospital and in other services where data are not available.