Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential (a) number and (b) cost of drugs that might gain conditional approval under the new Cancer Drugs Fund.

Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any such assessment as it would be inappropriate to pre-empt the final recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Since 2010, we have spent over £1 billion on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), helping 84,000 patients in England access cancer drugs that would not have otherwise been routinely available to them.

NHS England has advised that the new financial control mechanisms that will apply to the Fund from 1 July 2016 are intended to ensure the fixed £340 million budget is not exceeded, whilst at the same time not limiting the flow of eligible drugs from entering the CDF. Active steps are being taken to ensure that the future arrangements for the Fund are aligned with the final recommendations from the Accelerated Access Review, which are due in the summer.