Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what annual budget has been allocated by his Department to the elimination of Hepatitis C in each of the last five years; how much of that budget has been used since the commencement of the NHSE Hepatitis C elimination tender; and whether NHS England plans to ringfence that same amount of funding over the next four years to ensure elimination of that disease by 2025 in England.

NHS England and NHS Improvement's national hepatitis C elimination programme’s total annual elimination initiative’s expenditure, for which information is available, is as follows:

- 2021/22 - £20 million (budgeted);

- 2020/21 - £15 million; and

- 2019/20 - £9 million.

Prior to 2019/20, there was no dedicated elimination initiative funding. Regions were funded based on expenditure incurred by their providers and allocated on a monthly basis. NHS England and NHS Improvement have confirmed the budget provided each year has allowed the needs of the elimination programme to be fully met and expects the required budget to be made available for the duration of the programme.