Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of the report by Versus Arthritis entitled the State Of Musculoskeletal Health 2023 that there are over 10 million people living with arthritis in the UK.

Musculoskeletal conditions, which include arthritis, is one of the group of conditions included in the Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will aim to identify actions in the areas of prevention, treatment and long-term management of care to improve outcomes for individuals across the six major condition groups.

To inform the development of the strategy and to ensure a wide range of experiences are considered, the Department has launched a call for evidence to seek wider views and ideas from the public and organisations including Versus Arthritis.