Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what effect purdah will have on decision-taking on medicines currently under review by NICE; what assessment his Department has made of the potential effects of this on patient access to treatments; and if he will make a statement.

Throughout the pre-election period, as in previous years, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will continue the substantive work on the development of its guidance, including technology appraisals, such as evidence gathering and committee meetings, but will postpone publication of draft or final guidance until after the election. In the absence of NICE guidance on the use of a drug, commissioners should continue to make decisions on the availability of treatments based on an assessment of the available evidence. An absence of NICE guidance on a treatment alone is not an acceptable reason not to fund a treatment.