Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 18 November (HL11736), whether they plan to provide no budget to enact recommendations from the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group until after the merger of NHS England with the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Department recognises the important role that NHS England’s clinical policy development process plays in determining routine commissioning decisions on new specialised services, treatments, and interventions, which have not been reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

We are carefully assessing NHS England’s functions as part of the process of merging NHS England with the Department. The outcome of these ongoing assessments will be made at the earliest opportunity, and we remain committed to progressing this reform at pace, subject to legislation and the will of Parliament.

Until such a time that NHS England is being abolished, Clinical Priorities Advisory Group recommendations are being enacted under the current rules and criteria.