Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the commercialisation of intellectual property in the NHS since 2010.

Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any such assessment.

We have been informed by NHS England that the cost of tracking the cost benefit of the adoption of every piece of intellectual property in the NHS would be excessive.

The Department and NHS England have commissioned leading universities to assess the impact of Innovation, Health and Wealth on a range of measures, including value for money, patient outcomes and economic growth.

In the meantime, the Innovation Scorecard monitors whether uptake and utility of innovations in the NHS is improving. Evidence suggests that steady growth is being achieved and the most recent information is available at:

www.hscic.gov.uk/searchcatalogue?productid=15598&q=innovation+scorecard&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=1#top