Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for prisoners in England between referral and commencement of treatment for (a) hepatitis C and (b) HIV.

This information was not routinely collected prior to April 2014.

Public Health England, NHS England and the National Offender Management Service have co-produced a new health service evaluation tool for use in adult prisons in England called the Health and Justice Indicators of Performance (HJIPs).

The HJIPs were introduced in June 2014 and data will be collected against these indicators retrospectively from April 2014. Data will be collected on waiting times from diagnosis to assessment by specialist services for those infected with hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus. However, because the system needs time to establish new baselines and consistent use of new data definitions, valid and reliable data are not expected to be published before summer 2015-16.