Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the sufficiency of the progress made by NICE on working with clinicians and industry to promote greater use of asthma inhalers with low global warming potential.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an online only patient decision aid for inhalers used in the treatment of asthma on 8 April 2019.

The purpose of this aid is to help people with asthma and their healthcare professional to discuss the different inhaler devices that are available to treat their condition and where appropriate, to consider the environmental impact of the inhaler. The patient decision aid has been downloaded over 1,500 times since its publication.

To encourage use of the decision aid, NICE is contributing to an expert working group on sustainable inhalers led by the Sustainable Development Unit which is actively promoting this work. The working group members include clinicians and patient organisations, such as Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation. NICE has also shared the patient decision aid through its network of NICE associates - a network of National Health Service professionals who support implementation of NICE guidance across the NHS.