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 level of fatty liver disease among young people.

The following table from NHS Digital shows a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of K76.0 - Fatty (Change of) liver, for patients aged under 18, for the financial years 2013-14 to 2017-18. Clinical code K76.0 includes, but is not limited to, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage, improvements in coverage of independent sector activity and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures that may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so are no longer included in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information.