Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to a Hepatitis C elimination plan in order to meet the WHO target of eliminating the disease as a public health threat by 2030; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) target of eliminating hepatitis C by 2030 but there are no plans at this time to publish a strategy to eliminate hepatitis C. A variety of initiatives are underway in England to improve awareness and case finding, re-engagement and linkage to care, especially in drug services, primary care, prisons and accident and emergency centres. In addition, NHS England is funding access to new hepatitis C treatments in accordance with guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

A summary of progress towards achieving the WHO elimination goal was published in 2017 in Public Health England’s report, ‘Hepatitis C in the UK’, is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/632465/HCV_in_the_uk_report_2017.pdf

This showed that the United Kingdom is on target to meet the WHO interim goal of reducing hepatitis C mortality by 10% by 2020. Better access to improved treatment has led to the first fall in deaths from severe hepatitis C related liver disease in decade.