Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 7 February (HL4941), what standards are set for governance and reporting by (1) RAPID C-19, and (2) other Department of Health and Social Care committees; how they are audited against this standard; and how regularly that auditing takes place.

The Research to Access Pathway for Investigational Drugs (RAPID C-19) is a multi-agency initiative, each with their own expertise. RAPID C-19 is operated in line with the interim process, full details can be found on the RAPID C-19 page on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence website in an online-only format.

The focus will be on bodies that have directly informed decisions on COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic, in addition to RAPID C-19. These include the COVID-19 Prophylaxis Oversight Group, which was established in 2020 to guide the development of pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 infection, and the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel, which was launched by the Department in May 2022 to focus on at-risk patient cohorts that could be eligible for COVID-19 therapies. Arrangements to record possible conflicts of interest are also in place.

All activity within the Department is overseen by the audit and risk committee which meets quarterly and includes challenge from independent non-executive directors. This is further underpinned by the challenge of the health group internal audit service, and by other independent assurance processes, such as National Audit Office reviews and the scrutiny of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.