Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of new treatments that will reach or exceed the new budget impact test that NICE plans to introduce on 1 April 2017, (b) number of patients in England that will be delayed in accessing those treatments and (c) potential effect on the health outcomes of those patients delayed in accessing those treatments.

The proposed budget impact test is expected to apply to a minority of appraisals. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that around 80% of technologies appraised between June 2015 and June 2016 fell below the level of the proposed budget impact test.

The National Health Service spent over £15 billion on medicines in 2015/16, a 20% increase since 2010/11, and the purpose of the budget impact test is to help to manage the introduction of high budget impact products into the NHS, and to ensure that their introduction does not distort the NHS’s ability to fund other priorities.

NHS patients will continue to have a right in the NHS constitution to drugs and treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance.