To ask the Minister of Health whether his Department plans to develop an epilepsy register to improve data collection, service planning and patient care.

There are no plans to develop an Epilepsy Register at this time. My Department, however, does recognise the value of data in improving health intelligence and the potential of an epilepsy register as an important tool in improving epilepsy services.

Now that all HSC Trusts are using encompass, this unified digital care record could provide a strong platform from which conditionspecific registers, such as an epilepsy register, can be developed in the future.