Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle the policy and system barriers NICE has flagged as preventing the implementation of the discount rate in their Methods and Process Review.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for its methods and processes. NICE recently consulted on proposals for changes to its methods and processes, including the discount rate, and is now carefully considering the comments received.

NICE’s consultation stated that there is an evidence-based case for changing the reference case discount rate to 1.5% but acknowledged the wider policy and fiscal implications and proposed further consideration of changing the discount rate through wider policy discussions. NICE also proposed to maintain a non-reference case discount rate of 1.5% for use in exceptional circumstances.

The Government will take NICE’s findings into account in due course.