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 impact of the covid-19 outbreak on testing for liver disease; and what steps he is taking to improve testing for that disease.

No formal assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Plan recognises the importance of preventing avoidable disease through targeted policies to address lifestyle factors affecting healthy life expectancy, such as alcohol consumption and obesity. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement, with support from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, have invested £27 million in a four year programme to 2023/24 to establish or improve alcohol care teams to provide specialist alcohol interventions in hospitals where needed.