Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many patients diagnosed with hepatitis C remain to be treated with new anti-viral drugs; and when NHS England expect them all to have received such treatment.

An estimated 160,000 people in England are thought to be living with chronic hepatitis C infection. The current number of people diagnosed and yet to access treatment is difficult to state with certainty. National surveys of people who inject drugs suggest that only about half are aware of their hepatitis C infection; this figure has remained relatively stable over the past decade.

NHS England is planning a sustainable roll out of treatment which will complete the treatment of 71,000 individuals between 2015/16 and 2020/21.