Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department is taking to reduce health inequalities for people with (a) rare, (b) genetic and (c) undiagnosed conditions in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.

It is the responsibility of integrated care systems (ICSs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population.

England’s 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan includes a specific action to address health inequalities. This action is to gather the evidence needed to include rare diseases in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 Framework. This will enable integrated care systems, including the North Central London Integrated Care Board, to develop targeted actions to reduce these inequalities in their local populations. Additionally, the UK Rare Diseases Framework commits the four nations to ensure any impacts on health inequalities are considered when developing action plans for rare conditions.

Genomics England will lead a programme to carry out tailored genomic sequencing of 15,000 to 25,000 research participants from diverse ancestry groups that are currently under-represented in genomic research. This will increase our understanding of genomic diversity and its impact on scientific, clinical and health system outcomes, aiming to reduce health inequalities, and improve patient outcomes across all communities.