Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in relation to the commitment in the Rare Disease Action Plan for England 2024 to review the criteria for determining whether a medicine should be routed to its Highly Specialised Technologies programme.

Department officials regularly discuss a range of issues with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including in relation to the criteria for routing topics to the highly specialised technologies programme. The aim of any change to the criteria would be to clarify the type of medicine that would be eligible for the programme, in line with the vision set out in the NICE’s published topic selection manual. The NICE will consult publicly on any proposed changes to the criteria.