Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department will submit a response to NHS England's consultation on the Cancer Drugs Fund Standard Operating Procedures; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England has responsibility for the operational management of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) and published its Standard Operating Procedures: Guidance to support operation of the CDF in 2015-16 on 21 May 2015. This sets out the basis on which the CDF panel will make decisions on which drugs are included within the national CDF list and is available at:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sop-delegtd-auth-changes.pdf

The Department did not respond to NHS England’s consultation on revised CDF standard operating procedures in Autumn 2014 and has not submitted a response to NHS England’s recent consultation on the Fund’s standard operating procedures which closed on 18 June 2015.