Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commit to a target for improving access to cancer medicines to support the ambition in the NHS Long Term Plan of improving cancer survival by 2028.
There are no plans to introduce a specific target for improving access to cancer medicines. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for making evidence-based recommendations on whether new medicines represent an effective use of National Health Service resources. NICE is also now able to recommend cancer medicines for use through the Cancer Drugs Fund which has helped over 64,000 patients to benefit from the most promising cancer medicines where there is uncertainty about their effectiveness. NICE now appraises all new medicines and significant licence extensions and it has recommended 92% of cancer medicines it appraised in 2020-21.