Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on what basis his Department decided the national waiting time criteria for referral to (a) specialist services for HIV treatment and (b) hepatitis C treatment; and what the reason is for the difference in duration between the two sets of criteria.

Timing for access to care or treatments for all NHS England service specifications or policies is based on an assessment of the evidence for clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness and affordability.