Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that clinical commissioning groups follow National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

As statutory bodies, we would expect clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to take account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and best practice guidance when developing policies and treatment criteria for the services they commission. There is no formal mechanism for requiring that CCGs follow NICE guidelines.

CCGs are responsible for working with their local communities to understand the needs of the local populations and make decisions about how best to commission services that meet those needs, in partnership with other local commissioners and organisations.