Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure access for NHS patients to innovative new medicines that have received marketing authorisation before their assessment from NICE.

In the absence of guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund new medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.

We take the issue of ensuring rapid access to innovative therapies very seriously, which is why we have launched an Accelerated Access Review to make recommendations to Government later in the year on speeding up access for National Health Service patients to innovative and cost effective new medicines, diagnostics and medical technologies.