Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to enact the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in England.

The Government is committed to the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases that sets out a long-term strategic vision for improving the lives of people with rare diseases and conditions.

NHS England announced in March 2017 an intention to publish an implementation plan for England setting out its delivery contribution to the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in 2017/18 as part of the plans for the next steps of the Five Year Forward View. The Department is coordinating the implementation plan for England regarding the non-National Health Service lead commitments in the Strategy also to be published in 2017/18.

A progress report on the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases was published early in 2016 and a further update will be published in early 2018.