Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of reference prices for implantable defibrillators and cardiac resynchronisation defibrillators on the ability of trusts to deliver recommendations in NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance 314, published in June 2014.

As reference prices shared with commissioners are between 3% and 11% higher than those stated in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisal Guidance TA314, NHS England does not anticipate that there will be any adverse impact on the ability of trusts to deliver on NICE recommendations. In other words, because the reference cost is higher, providers are paid more than the NICE guidance costs. However, this will be monitored as part of the routine contract management process through the improved dataset submissions.