Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential for gene therapies to reduce the treatment burden on hospital capacity.

No formal assessment has been made of the potential for gene therapies to reduce the treatment burden on hospital capacity. NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Accelerated Access Collaborative and direct commissioning teams work with a range of stakeholders to undertake horizon scanning of new health technologies to ensure the preparations can be made if treatments are recommended by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. Hospital capacity is one of several elements that are considered by the National Health Service when implementing technologies that may have an impact on existing care pathways.