Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what options his Department is considering for making access to an expanded range of cancer drugs available through the NHS after the end of the Cancer Drugs Fund.

The Government remains committed to the Cancer Drugs Fund which has so far helped over 84,000 patients in England access the cancer drugs they need. £340 million has been allocated to the Fund in 2016-17.

NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements that are being introduced for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.