Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on improving access to specialist care, treatment and drugs for rare diseases as outlined in the Rare Disease Action Plan 2022.

Progress on delivery of the Action Plan will be reported in the second England Rare Diseases Action Plan at the beginning of 2023. In June 2022, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) launched the Innovative Medicines Fund which will allows early access to the most promising medicines where there is sufficient uncertainty for NICE to recommend routine funding. This will support the rapid introduction of effective new medicines for the benefit of National Health Service patients, including those with rare diseases.