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Written Question
Visual Impairment
Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Asked by: Nick Hurd (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)

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 direct and indirect cost to the UK economy of disability through blindness and visual disorders.

Answered by Alistair Burt

The Department has not made a recent estimate of the direct and indirect cost to the United Kingdom economy of disability through blindness and visual disorders.


Written Question
Visual Impairment
Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Asked by: Nick Hurd (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of levels of blindness and low vision are classifiable as preventable.

Answered by Alistair Burt

There is a range of information already available about levels of preventable sight loss. The indicator within the Public Health Outcomes Framework brings this together in a single place. The indicator is made up of four sub-indicators which will measure the crude rates of Age-Related Macular Degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, and of the rate of sight loss certifications per 100,000 population. Data has been collected since 1 April 2013.


Baseline data for 2010/11 was published in November 2012, broken down by local authority and data providing a time series up to 2013/14 has now been published. It is available to search at:


http://www.phoutcomes.info/public-health-outcomes-framework#gid/1000044/par/E12000004