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 with hepatitis C who are engaged with specialist services but have not been initiated on to hepatitis C treatment.

Currently this information is not centrally collected. However, Public Health England produces an annual report of hepatitis in England which sets out estimates of diagnosed and undiagnosed hepatitis C and treatment activity. NHS England is working with Public Health England and National Health Service trusts leading Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks to develop a national registry of all patients with diagnosed hepatitis C. It is anticipated that following roll out of a national registry, improved data on patients with hepatitis C engaged with specialist services but not yet initiated on treatment will be available by the summer.