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 compatibility with the NHS constitution of the introduction of a Quality-Adjusted Life-Year threshold for highly specialised technologies .

The changes to the methodology used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the development of guidance on highly specialised technologies do not affect the right enshrined in the NHS Constitution to NICE recommended drugs. National Health Service patients continue to have a right to drugs and treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies guidance provided their clinician considers it is appropriate treatment for them.