Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he (a) has had and (b) plans to have discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on (i) its use of the new severity modifier and (ii) how it (A) measures and (B) reports the impact of the modifier on approval of treatments for (1) cancers, (2) relapsing and remitting conditions and (3) conditions that are more prevalent in older people.

We have received briefings on the use of the severity modifier by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in the development of its guidance for the National Health Service, on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS.

The severity modifier was introduced by the NICE in 2022 to replace the end-of-life modifier following extensive public and stakeholder engagement, as part of a number of changes that are designed to make the NICE’s methods and processes fairer, faster, and more consistent. The severity modifier reflects evidence of societal preferences and has already enabled the NICE to recommend innovative treatments for cystic fibrosis and hepatitis D that would not have been eligible for an end of life weighting.

Most cancers would be classed as severe and so would still have the additional weight applied. 79% of the NICE’s cancer appraisals carried out under the NICE’s updated methods have been positive, which compares with 78% under the NICE’s previous methods. The NICE continues to monitor the impact of the severity modifier on its evaluations.