Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2015 to Question 220689, when he expects NICE to have developed a quality standard on sleep-disordered breathing.

NHS England is the lead commissioner for clinical guideline and quality standard for healthcare topics from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE has advised that it has received a formal referral for a clinical guideline and quality standard on sleep disordered breathing from NHS England.

NICE’s clinical guideline work programme is prioritised with NHS England on an annual basis. Sleep disordered breathing has not been included in the initial list of topics to start development in 2015-16 but will be included in future rounds of prioritisation. Once it has been scheduled, the guideline will then take approximately two years to develop and the development of the quality standard will follow on from this.