Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress her Department has made on the Interim Delivery Plan for ME/CFS.

In August 2023, the Department published My Full Reality, a cross-Government interim delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which sets out a number of actions to improve the experiences and outcomes for people with the condition through an expansion of research, better education of professionals, improvements in attitudes towards the condition, and improvements to service provision.

Alongside the publication of the interim Delivery Plan, we ran a public consultation to gather the views and experiences of healthcare professionals, organisations, and individuals with lived experiences of ME/CFS. The aim of the consultation is to build a picture of how well the interim delivery plan identifies and meets the needs of the ME/CFS community, and to understand where there are any gaps where further action may be necessary.

The consultation received well over 3,000 highly detailed responses, which are in the process of being analysed. The consideration and analysis of these responses is progressing steadily, and we are on track to publish a summary of the consultation responses shortly. The consultation responses, along with continued close engagement with stakeholders, will inform the development of the final delivery plan, which we aim to publish later this year.