Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NICE is taking to ensure that its methods continue to evolve in line with advancing technologies.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically effective and cost-effective use of resources.

NICE is responsible for the methods and processes it uses to develop its recommendations and concluded a comprehensive review of the methods and processes it uses for health technology evaluation in January 2022. NICE carried out the review through extensive engagement with stakeholders, including Departmental officials. NICE introduced several changes that make its methods fairer, faster and more consistent, and appropriate to the evaluation of emerging new technologies, such as cell and gene therapies.

NICE is monitoring the impact of the changes following the methods review and has committed to considering modular updates to its methods and processes in the future.

NICE has also developed a Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory that aims to address challenges that may arise in the assessment of innovative health technologies. Recent projects include looking at the use of artificial intelligence in health technology assessment and identifying the potential issues that may emerge in the evaluation of disease-modifying dementia treatments.

Optimised recommendations are used when the case for the adoption and potential benefits of a treatment are partially supported, for example, it is supported for specific circumstances or populations. As such, the treatment would be recommended for a smaller or sub-group of patients than if recommended within its marketing authorisation.