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 effect of covid-19 on the feasibility of delivering the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases; and whether he has plans to undertake a review of that strategy as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

The Government is committed to improving the lives of those affected by rare disease and continues to implement the commitments made in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. The Department published its most recent update to the implementation plan for achieving the commitments in the Strategy in England in February 2020, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-strategy-for-rare-diseases-2020-update-to-the-implementation-plan-for-england

In October 2019, the national conversation on rare diseases survey was launched to identify the major challenges faced by those living and working with rare diseases. We received almost 6,300 responses which, alongside the lessons learned from the experiences of rare disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be used to shape the post-2020 UK Rare Diseases Framework which will replace the Strategy.