Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton (HL776), what assessment they have made of the impact of the decision by NHS England to suspend the listing of new drugs on the Cancer Drugs Fund on patient access to new drugs being launched within the next six months.

NHS England has advised that the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) is reprioritised on a regular basis so that the resources available are used to the best benefit for patients.

As part of this, NHS England has taken the decision not to consider new drugs for inclusion in the national CDF list at this time and has made no decision on when new applications to the Fund will next be considered.

Clinicians will continue to be able to apply for cancer drugs not on the national CDF list through the Individual Cancer Drugs Funding Request procedure.