Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to support the adoption and implementation of the new NICE Quality Standard on Spondyloarthritis, QS170.

The Department is not involved in the direct promotion of quality standards. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) promotes Quality Standards (QS) and other guidance via its website, newsletters and other media.

On 28 June 2018, NICE published a new QS on spondyloarthritis. The QS includes four quality statements identified as the markers of high quality spondyloarthritis care. QS are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high quality service should look like in a particular area of care. Whilst providers and commissioners must have regard to NICE QS in planning and delivering services, they do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.