Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 23 October 2014 to Question 211147, what the timeline is for publication of the Liver Disease Framework under development by Public Health England; and whether there will be a full public consultation during that process.

Public Health England plans to publish its framework for tackling liver disease in the summer of 2015.

The framework will lay out clearly the scope of Public Health England activities. This will range from the investigation of hepatitis viruses to support local authorities in their work to tackle the effects of alcohol consumption and obesity on liver disease. It will also cover the life course from antenatal screening, vaccination of babies born, to mothers with chronic Hepatitis B, to improving the care of patients dying from liver disease.

Public Health England is not intending to hold a formal consultation on the framework but is conducting extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders in its development. These include NHS England, the liver disease related charities, hepatologists (liver disease specialists) from across the country and local authority representatives.