Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) prevalence and (b) adequacy of treatment options for the retinal degenerative disease Stargardt's.

The Department does not hold prevalence figures of retinal degenerative disease Stargardt's in England at present. The Government is working with Public Health England‘s National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service (NCARDRS) which collects information about people with congenital abnormalities and rare diseases and covers the whole of England. NCARDRS is working to expand its data collection and work with interested parties to advance data collection including Stargardt's retinal degenerative disease.

Services for patients with retinal degenerative disease Stargardt's are provided by local clinical commissioning groups. There is currently no curative treatment available for patients. Patients are advised to reduce the speed of degeneration by avoiding exposure to bright light and wearing sunglasses.