Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in Leicestershire who (a) are estimated to be living with hepatitis C, (b) have been diagnosed with hepatitis C and (c) were able to access hepatitis C treatment in 2016-17.

Local authorities can estimate the hepatitis C prevalence (estimate how many people have hepatitis C), have been diagnosed and are eligible for treatment in their area using the hepatitis C template at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hepatitis-c-commissioning-template-for-estimating-disease-prevalence

Exact data on the number of people diagnosed with hepatitis C by area is not collected centrally, however the estimated total infected population in Leicestershire is 1,495 of which approximately 60% are likely to be diagnosed.

To the end of March 2017, the Operational Delivery Network covering Leicester treated 264 individuals.