Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average time taken has been between marketing authorisation being granted and NHS England publishing a funding decision for rare disease medicines in (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17 to date.

There is currently no definitive information available regarding the average time taken between marketing authorisation for a new medicine being granted and NHS England publishing a funding decision for rare disease medicines.

NHS England does not make funding decisions on rare medicines, which fall into the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Highly Specialised Technology Appraisal programme.