Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve treatment outcomes for people with Huntington’s Disease; and what research his Department is supporting into that disease.

Working under the UK Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as Huntington’s Disease. One of the priorities of the Framework is improving access to specialist care, treatment and drugs. In England, we published the 2025 Rare Diseases Action Plan on 28 February 2025, which provides further information.

The Department funds research into Huntington’s disease via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes high quality funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including Huntington’s disease. For example, the NIHR’s UCL Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) supported the TRACK-HD study. This identified biomarkers for Huntington’s disease and generated a database of brain scans available to scientists and led to the development of a rating scale to measure disease progression. BRC-funded researchers have also developed the first human test for the protein, which has now been validated and used as an endpoint in clinical trials.