Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to include a specific hepatitis C indicator in the Public Health Outcomes Framework.

The Public Health Outcomes Framework for 2013-16 (PHOF) already includes an indicator on under 75 mortality rate from liver disease (PHOF indicator 4.6), which is shared with the NHSOF (indicator 1.3) and an indicator on mortality from communicable diseases (Indicator 4.8). Both of these indicators cover hepatitis C.

In support of these indicators, Public Health England is working to reverse the current trend in hepatitis C, so that the rates of death and disability are reduced, including working with local authorities and the NHS in those areas with high levels of hepatitis C to put effective strategies in place.

The Department is not planning to add new indicators to the PHOF until April 2016 to provide local authorities with stability in planning and commissioning public health interventions. The Department is planning to begin a review of the current PHOF in 2015.