Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2016 to Question 46746, if he will make an assessment of the extent to which patient treatment is falling short of NICE best practice guidelines for financial reasons.

There are no plans for such an assessment to be made.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines are often broad in scope and make a large number of recommendations spanning the whole pathway of care diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Because of their complexity and different local priorities they are not mandatory although, as best practice, we expect National Health Service organisations to take them fully into account, drawing upon clinical judgement.