Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on the adoption of the NICE recommendations for all doctors' surgeries to declare the number of patients diagnosed with Lyme Disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease in April 2018. Although guidelines are not mandatory, when exercising their judgement, clinicians are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients. NICE’s guideline does not recommend that doctors' surgeries should declare the number of patients diagnosed with Lyme Disease, but includes a research recommendation for “a large clinico-epidemiological study to collect data on incidence, presenting clinical features, management and outcome of Lyme disease in community and hospital settings in the UK”. NICE’s research recommendations are designed to identify potential gaps in evidence to researchers working in specific areas.