Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support NHS hospitals to provide safe and appropriate care for people with severe and very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis while the development of specialised services remains under consideration.

Further to the answers provided on 16 July to Question 16893 and on 15 September to Question 21290, the Department, together with NHS England, has developed a template service specification for mild, moderate, and severe myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The template, once published, will be circulated to integrated care boards to support the commissioning of services for severe ME/CFS.