Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to clinical commissioning groups on the allergy quality standard.

The Department provides no specific advice to clinical commissioning groups about either the Drug Allergy Quality Standard, published in July 2015, or the Food Allergy Quality Standard, published in March 2016.

Quality Standards, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high quality service should look like in a particular area of care. Quality standards are based on NICE guidance and other NICE-accredited sources and NHS England promotes their use in local service delivery.

National Health Service organisations must have regard to NICE Quality Standards in planning and delivering services as part of a general duty to secure continuous improvement in quality. However, the quality standards do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.