Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy priorities are in the Accelerated Access Pathway programme; and what the implications are of that programme for life-extending treatments.

In December 2017, the Government published the Life Sciences Sector Deal, which detailed our commitments to taking forward the ambition in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. This included implementing the response to the Accelerated Access Review, which sets out a plan to increase the rate of uptake of innovative products.

In delivering this response, the Government has brought together the key Government, National Health Service and industry partners to form the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) which will drive the uptake and adoption of innovation in the NHS, identifying and supporting the innovations that will be most transformative for patients.

The AAC will oversee the Accelerated Access Pathway, streamlining regulatory and market access decisions, and providing additional support to increase uptake of the most transformative innovations.