Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2017 to Question 65608, whether his Department will assess the merits of collecting data on average waiting times for children seeking access to assessment for a ketogenic diet for the treatment of epilepsy.

Assessment for a ketogenic diet would take place in an outpatient setting where collection of data relating to diagnosis and procedure are not mandated. Furthermore, assessment of a ketogenic diet is not identifiable by the OPCS Classification of Interventions and Procedures coding, used for recording clinical activity in the National Health Service. Therefore it not possible to collect data on average waiting times for children seeking access to assessment for a ketogenic diet for the treatment of epilepsy, which are a matter for local arrangement.