Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of NHS spending on pharmaceutical products on NHS service provision in the context of the UK-US trade deal.

By increasing the standard National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) cost-effectiveness threshold, we are increasing the value that we place on innovations that deliver improvements to patient health. Alongside the changes that we announced in the Life Sciences Sector Plan, this will increase both the speed and breadth of patient access to innovative medicines and encourage growth in United Kingdom-based clinical trials.

Costs will start smaller but will increase over time as the NICE approves more life improving and lifesaving medicines. Total costs over the Spending Review period are expected to be approximately £1 billion. But the final costs will depend on which medicines NICE decides to approve and the actual uptake of these.

This deal is a vital investment that builds on the strength of our National Health Service and world leading life sciences sector to increase access to life-changing medicines without taking essential funding from our frontline NHS services. We will always prioritise the needs of NHS patients and at the Spending Review we delivered a record real terms increase for day-to-day spending for the NHS in England up to April 2029.

This deal will be funded by allocations made at the Spending Review, where front line services will remain protected through the record funding secured. Future year funding will be settled at the next Spending Review.