Jim Shannon

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper), who is co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on liver disease and liver cancer, for setting the scene incredibly well. I thank her for the detail and for her requests to the Minister. It is, as always, a pleasure to see the Minister in her place. I wish her well and I look forward to her answers. I also thank the British Liver Trust and the Foundation for Liver Research, which supplied me with a briefing that made clear the excellent work at the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies, which continues to drive world-leading research into metabolic liver disease to shape how it is diagnosed and treated. Liver disease is a growing cause of premature mortality and lost years of working life in all four nations of the United Kingdom. It has been estimated that some 4,878 potential years of life were lost due to chronic liver disease in Northern Ireland. It is clear that the UK is in the midst of a liver disease crisis, to which the hon. Lady referred. It is as serious as that, and we should all take note. While premature mortality rates from other major diseases have fallen over the past two generations, deaths from liver disease have risen 400% since the 1970s. There are more than 18,000 deaths from liver disease and liver cancer each year in the United Kingdom.