Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase the capacity of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Highly Specialised Technologies Programme to evaluate new treatments for rare conditions; and if he will make a statement.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is resourced to evaluate three technologies through its Highly Specialised Technologies (HST) programme in 2017/18. The resources and capacity of NICE’s HST programme in future years will be considered alongside other priorities through the annual business planning process, taking into account the expected demand for HST guidance.