Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to involve NICE in the specialised commissioning policy development process.

NHS England is in discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in relation to two areas of potential support to its clinical commissioning policy development process for directly commissioned specialised services from 2016/17.

The first is the delivery of rapid evidence reviews (systematic reviews of the available evidence of clinical effectiveness for particular treatments and indications). The second is the production of commissioning support documents for licenced drugs which NHS England commissions directly.