Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NICE on their guidelines for the treatment of chronic pain.

We have had no such discussions. The National Institute for Care and 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 and cost-effective use of resources. NICE has published a range of guidance on the management of chronic pain, including ‘Chronic pain (primary and secondary) in over 16s: assessment of all chronic pain and management of chronic primary pain’ in April 2021 which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG193

Healthcare professionals should take the NICE guideline fully into account in the care and treatment of their patients.