Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the proposals for a budget impact threshold being adopted by NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), how they intend to maintain guarantees regarding access within 90 days to NICE-approved medicines.

Patients will continue to have a right in the National Health Service Constitution to drugs and treatments recommended in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal guidance.

The NHS Constitution right reflects the legal requirement on NHS commissioners to fund drugs and treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance, normally within three months of publication of final guidance from NICE. There is provision for NICE to extend the timescale for the introduction of the funding requirement where there are significant barriers to implementation within the standard three month timescale. The proposed budget impact threshold that has recently been subject to public consultation is intended in part to clarify the circumstances in which it is appropriate to extend the timescale for implementation of NICE’s technology appraisal recommendations.