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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been diagnosed with (a) liver disease and (b) viral hepatitis in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison

Data is not collected on new cases of liver disease. Liver disease covers many individual diseases caused by different factors, such as alcoholic liver disease, fatty liver disease as well as hepatitis related diseases. The identification of new cases will take place in different settings, from general practice to hospital outpatients.

The nearest proxy measure that we have is hospital admissions. However, hospital admissions only reflect the most serious cases when people are admitted to hospital. The number of hospital admissions for liver disease rose from 35,581 in 2001-02 to 57,682 in 2011-12, an increase of 62%.

Hepatitis A, B, C and E are viruses that affect the liver. Where tests can differentiate acute from chronic infections, data is presented as newly acquired infections and where not, data is presented as newly diagnosed cases. Hepatitis surveillance data for 2013 will be available in August 2014.

Cases of confirmed newly acquired hepatitis A virus infection are reported by laboratories to Public Health England.

Table 1: Hepatitis A laboratory reports (newly acquired infections), England (2002-2012).

Year	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of hepatitis A reports	1,278	999	610	469	374	344	344	341	359	252	279

Data on acute hepatitis B infections are reported both from laboratories and from Health Protection Teams to Public Health England. Reporting in this way commenced in 2008.

Table 2: Reports of acute hepatitis B infections (newly acquired infections), England (2008-2012)

Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of hepatitis B reports	620	597	512	589	554

Laboratory reports of newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis C are reported to Public Health England.

Table 3: Laboratory reports of hepatitis C (newly diagnosed cases), England (2002-2012)

Year	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of hepatitis C reports	4,809	5,570	6,240	6,295	6,961	7,808	8,407	8,862	7,882	9,917	10,873

Note:

At present serological tests are not able to differentiate between acute and chronic cases of hepatitis C infection. Therefore, laboratory reports of hepatitis C contain both recently acquired infections and past infections. For this reason the data represent newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis C as opposed to newly acquired infections.

Laboratory reports of confirmed cases of hepatitis E are reported to Public Health England. Surveillance began in 2003.

Table 4: Laboratory reports of hepatitis E (newly acquired infections), England (2003-2012)

Year	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of hepatitis E reports	122	145	294	239	161	168	166	258	435	530

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have had with representatives of people with liver disease since September 2012.

Jane Ellison

NHS England is responsible for the overall national approach to improving clinical outcomes for people with liver disease. It is adopting a broad strategy to reduce premature mortality, including mortality from liver disease.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has not met any external organisations to discuss a strategy for combating liver disease since 11 May 2010. The Secretary of State and current Ministers at the Department have not met with representatives of people living with liver disease since September 2012.

NHS England and Public Health England are supporting clinical commissioning groups and local authorities to reduce premature mortality by providing commissioners with a suite of tools to help them maximise the best possible outcomes for their local communities such as Local Authority Profiles. These can help local authorities and clinical commissioning groups identify the significance of liver disease in their local area compared with the rest of the country and the actions they could prioritise to tackle it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been admitted to hospital with a (a) primary and (b) secondary diagnosis of viral hepatitis in each year since 1997-98.

Jane Ellison

The Health and Social Care Information Centre collects data on the number of hospital admission episodes for hepatitis C. This does not reflect the actual number of people admitted to hospital, because the same person may have had more than one admission episode within the same time period. The data held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre are as follows:

Year	Primary diagnosis	Secondary diagnosis
1997-98	4,045	4,738
1998-99	4,204	5,963
1999-2000	4,509	6,783
2000-01	4,683	7,405
2001-02	4,992	8,371
2002-03	5,883	9,746
2003-04	6,538	11,221
2004-05	6,180	12,551
2005-06	5,878	15,414
2006-07	6,273	16,661
2007-08	6,205	18,386
2008-09	6,222	20,799
2009-10	6,204	23,256
2010-11	5,549	26,703
2011-12	4,466	27,518
2012-13	4,766	30,351

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the rate of liver disease amongst adults was in the most recent period for which figures are available in each clinical commissioning group area.

Jane Ellison

The table attached shows finished admission episodes for liver disease in 2012-13 by clinical commissioning group of residence, where the patient was 18 years or older. The rate is supplied per 100,000 of the population.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 54 of the Chief Medical Officer’s 2011 annual report, if he will place in the Library the figures underpinning the statement that liver disease mortality is increasing in England at the time when the average of our closest counterparts, EU members that joined pre-2004 is decreasing; if he will update those figures to include the latest available data; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

All of the datasets supporting statements and images in the ‘Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer Volume One 2011, On the State of the Public’s Health’, may be downloaded by following the link at:

www.gov.uk/government/news/cmo-annual-report-2011-volume-one-data-available

The datasets are not available in a hard copy format from the Department. It is anticipated that the figures will be updated later in the financial year.

In our mandate to the National Health Service, we set out the ambition to make England one of the most successful countries in Europe at preventing premature deaths from illnesses such as liver disease.