Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in the UK have been diagnosed with severe visual impairments.

Health is a devolved matter. In England, data is not collected centrally showing the total number of people diagnosed with severe visual impairments. Data is collected annually, showing the number of people certified as sight impaired, also known as partially sighted, or severely sight impaired, also known as blind, through the Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI). In 2022/2023, there were 23,993 CVI forms issued in England. Given certification is voluntary, this is likely to be an underestimation of those diagnosed with severe sight impairments.