Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of access to (a) specialist care and (b) NICE-approved treatments for patients with migraine.

NHS England is responsible for allocating funding to the integrated care boards (ICBs), which are in turn responsible for commissioning specialist migraine services that meet the needs of their populations, subject to local prioritisation and funding.

The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on the diagnosis and management of headaches in over 12-year-olds, which was updated in December 2021. The NICE’s guideline provides recommendations on principles of care for people with a migraine, which may include a multidisciplinary approach to care, based on clinical need, and involving access to a range of health professionals, including specialist neurology nurses, neurologists, and pain management specialists. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government expects the healthcare system to take them fully into account when designing services.

Through its Technology Appraisals Programme, the NICE has recommended a number of calcitonin gene-related peptide inhibitors for the treatment of migraines, and these have been made routinely available to eligible National Health Service patients in England. Commissioners have a statutory responsibility to make funding available for a drug or treatment recommended by the NICE’s Technology Appraisals Programme within 90 days of publication of guidance, unless specified in the guidance.