Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including liver disease assessments in NHS health checks for people aged 40 and over.

During a NHS Health Check, the alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) is used to assess alcohol consumption. The national guidance for the NHS Health Check states that individuals with an AUDIT score of 16 or more should be referred for a liver disease assessment. The 2021 evidence-based review of the NHS Health Check programme recognised the benefit of including increasingly common conditions, such as mental and musculoskeletal ill-health. There are no current plans to include liver disease assessments in the NHS Health Check programme.