Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis was which was used to inform the introduction of a £100,000 quality adjusted life year threshold into the highly specialised technology process.

In April 2017, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) amended its methodology for the evaluation of highly specialised technologies to introduce a weighted cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). Under the new methodology, technologies that deliver very significant health benefits can be recommended for routine use up to £300,000 per QALY gained.

NICE introduced the new methodology following a public consultation and took into account a report produced by its Decision Support Unit titled ‘Priorities for the NICE Highly Specialised Technologies Programme Review of Methods’ as well as modelling of the impact on topics that had previously been evaluated through the highly specialised technologies programme.