Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage innovative stem cell and umbilical cord treatments for liver disease.

The Government continues to support research through a range of funding agencies into the therapeutic use of stem cells. Over 80 patients have been recruited to a clinical trial to test the potential use of stem cells to treat liver disease. The results of this trial will only be available when the follow-up phase of the study has been completed. Before making this type of treatment available through the National Health Service it will be necessary to demonstrate that the treatment is both safe and effective and this is likely to involve further larger clinical trials.