Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the budget is for the NHS England specialised commissioning prioritisation process in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19 and (c) 2019-20.
Answered by Steve Brine
The budget for the NHS England specialised commissioning prioritisation process for 2017/18 is £25 million and £25 million for 2018/19. Allocations have not been agreed yet for 2019/20.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to manufacturers of products undergoing review by the NHS England specialised commissioning prioritisation process on the timelines for the reverse auction element of the process.
Answered by Steve Brine
No formal centralised reverse auction is being undertaken for the May 2018 prioritisation round but NHS England continues to work with manufacturers through industry associations on the technology to support the process of submitting commercial proposals for future prioritisation rounds.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect on the public purse of the UK entering the top quartile of comparator countries for the speed of adoption and overall uptake of innovative treatments.
Answered by Steve Brine
The proposal for the United Kingdom to move to the upper quartile of comparator countries for the uptake of innovative medicines by 2023 was a strategic goal of the Life Science Industrial Strategy report to the Government by Sir John Bell. The Government supports the ambition to maximise the appropriate use of uptake of innovative treatments in the National Health Service, and work is currently underway to develop appropriate metrics to support this. Current metrics on the use of medicines in the UK compared to other countries is published annually in the Office for Life Sciences, Life Science Competitiveness Indicators using a methodology devised by the Office for Health Economics and data of medicine use from IQVIA. The indicator compares the average per capita level of uptake compared to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to ensure that the UK enters the top quartile of comparator countries for the speed of adoption and overall uptake of innovative treatments as recommended in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Steve Brine
Comparisons of uptake of medicines between different countries with different health systems are difficult and should be treated with caution. However, we are committed to working with industry on this issue and share the ambition to maximise the appropriate use of innovation in our system and tackle unwarranted variation in uptake. The Government and industry are currently working together through a series of workshops that will provide the foundation for the next medicines pricing scheme, and discussions around uptake, adoption and metrics have been a feature of those early meetings.
The recent Government and partner bodies response to the Accelerated Access Review sets out how we will work with industry and the health system to create a streamlined and sophisticated approvals system so that cost-effective breakthrough products – be they drugs, devices, digital or diagnostics – can get into the National Health Service as fast as possible.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the formal role of NHS England will be in delivering an effective Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and Sector Deal.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Health Service will be a key partner in the delivery of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy (LSIS) and Sector Deal. We are working with sector representatives to establish a Life Sciences Council which will oversee the LSIS and future phases of the Deal. Chaired by the Secretaries of State, the Council will include NHS England, and sector representatives. An Implementation Board, responsible for delivery of the first Sector Deal, will report to this Council, reviewing progress against objectives at quarterly meetings. Similarly, we expect to see governance bringing together broad representation from across the health sector, including the Government and NHS England.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures will be included within NHS England’s mandate for 2018-19 to formalise its role in implementing the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is currently developing its approach to the mandate to NHS England for 2018-19, in light of the extra £2.8 billion to 2019/20 provided through the Autumn Budget to support the National Health Service. Both NHS England and Healthwatch England are involved in its development as statutory consultees.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to update and evolve value assessments of drugs, medical devices and diagnostics, as recommended in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is committed to playing its part in delivering the vision set out in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. Ensuring that appraisals are fit for purpose in a fast-changing sector is critical. NICE has recently taken steps to do this by introducing changes to its processes to support faster access to the most effective treatments, while addressing affordability issues. In addition, NICE has recently consulted on further changes to streamline its technology appraisal processes so that it is better able to develop new guidance on innovative drugs and medical technologies.
As set out in the response to the Accelerated Access Review, we are also introducing a new Accelerated Access Pathway, to streamline regulatory and market access decisions for a small number of products, getting breakthrough products that we believe will be truly transformative to patients even more quickly.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the extension of Orkambi's licence to treat patients aged six and over, what support his Department is giving to further negotiations among NICE, NHS England and the drug manufacturer, Vertex, on access to that medicine for people with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department wants patients with cystic fibrosis to benefit from clinically and cost effective treatments, and we welcome the on-going dialogue between Vertex and NHS England to pursue a deal that would make Orkambi available to National Health Service patients.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2017 to Question 8617, whether policy proposals that have not yet been endorsed by a clinical reference group will be eligible for consideration at NHS England's Clinical Priorities Advisory Group meeting in May 2018.
Answered by Steve Brine
In order to be eligible to be considered by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group, policy propositions first need to be endorsed by a Clinical Reference Group, and go through the ‘Clinical Build’ and Impact Analysis phases.
All proposals that have been considered and approved by the relevant Policy Working Group, following the period of public consultation, will go forward to the relative prioritisation event. If the new proposal has not completed these steps and/or is not fully signed off as complete by the Policy Working Group they will not be ready to go in to the prioritisation process.
NHS England publishes details of the clinical commissioning policies being developed and/or revised. Further details on NHS England’s service development process and prioritisation process are available on NHS England’s website.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what deadline NHS England has set for submissions of new policy proposals to be considered as part of the second round of its 2018-19 prioritisation process for specialised services.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) plans to meet in November 2017 and again in May 2018 to form its recommendations to NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group, which in turn makes recommendations to Specialised Services Commissioning Committee on funding for 2018/19.
As part of the second round of its 2018/19 prioritisation process for specialised services NHS England's will consider all new or revised policy propositions eligible for consideration that have been developed in line with the published ‘Methods’ document, which sets out how CPAG would make future investment decisions. This approach ensures that policy proposals are developed by clinical leaders, reflect available evidence on clinical effectiveness, consider feedback from stakeholders and the public, and have been consistently costed to allow relative prioritisation.
So far, nine policy proposals along with seven service specification proposals are currently scheduled for consideration at the November meeting of NHS England’s CPAG meeting. Policy propositions would need to be submitted by 9 October 2017 for consideration at the November Clinical CPAG meeting. The deadline for completed policy propositions for the planned May 2018 CPAG meeting has not yet been set.
Any entirely new policy proposals would need to be considered as a potential service development for 2019/20.
NHS England publishes details of the clinical commissioning policies being developed and/or revised. Further details on NHS England’s service development process and prioritisation process are available on NHS England’s website: