Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answers of 19 January 2015 to Questions 219601 and 219602, when NHS England plans to make an accouncement regarding its plans for patients with cirrhosis from April 2015; and whether funding will be made available to support those patients to access treatment.

NHS England has advised that it is currently developing interim proposals to allow patients with cirrhosis meeting specified clinical criteria to receive some of the new combination therapies. The aim is that interim commissioning policies will be in place by the first half of 2015.

NHS England is developing these interim commissioning policies, with support from Public Health England, based on an assessment of clinical need. In doing so, it has also engaged with clinical and patient stakeholders from the national Clinical Reference Groups.