Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Shaughnessy on 5 January (HL4284), what estimate they have made of when hepatitis C will be eliminated as a serious public health concern in England, in the light of NHS England's current approach to the delivery of new direct antiviral treatments for hepatitis C.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines elimination as a reduction to zero of incidence of disease or infection in a defined geographical area and has set out a goal of eliminating hepatitis C as a major public health threat by 2030. The WHO Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis targets, relevant to the hepatitis C virus in the United Kingdom, include reducing the incidence of new cases of chronic hepatitis C infection in 2020 and 2030 by 30% and 80% respectively.

In the UK, new, highly effective, interferon-free anti-viral treatments for hepatitis C will contribute to this goal. Many affected have already been treated with the new therapies under the early access schemes operated by NHS England from 2014 to the start of 2016. Public Health England and NHS England continue to work collaboratively with stakeholders on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.