Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department issues NHS trusts on establishing commissioning structures for Health Technology Assessments; and whether trusts have discretion to adopt different processes.

Ministers have not met with Greater Manchester NHS Board about the statutory commissioning of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended medicines. Similarly I am informed that NHS England is not aware of any such discussions.

The National Health Service in England is legally required to make funding available for treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies guidance, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. This requirement is reflected in the NHS Constitution as a right to drugs and treatments that have been recommended by NICE for use in the NHS, if their doctor believes they are clinically appropriate.

The NHS Standard Contract is mandated by NHS England for use by commissioners for all contracts for healthcare services other than primary care. The 2024/25 standard contract states that, where any service involves or may involve the prescribing of medicines, the provider must ensure that its formulary reflects all relevant positive NICE technology appraisals. NICE’s guideline on developing and updating local formularies states that when a NICE technology appraisal recommends a medicine, it should be adopted into the local formulary automatically if clinically appropriate and relevant to the services provided by the organisation, and that this process should take place within three months.