Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of whether the outcomes of the NICE Methods Review support access to personalised cancer treatments; and if he will make a statement.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) now appraises all new cancer medicines and significant licence extensions and aims to publish draft guidance on new cancer drugs around the time of licensing wherever possible.

NICE’s review of its methods and processes is ongoing. The purpose of the review is to ensure that NICE’s methods and processes remain cutting edge and support the ambition of the National Health Service to provide high quality care that offers good value to patients and to the NHS. NICE expects to consult on the draft programme manual in the summer, with implementation of the changes from early 2022.