Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the progress of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence towards their priorities for 2025–26, including diabetes, and the impact of those priorities on patient access to novel technologies and treatments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will shortly be publishing its business plan, which will set out its priorities for 2025/26, following approval by the NICE Board. NICE’s priorities will include delivery of commitments outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan. These include:

- the adoption of a dynamic approach to appraisals that identifies where existing innovation should be retired and where technologies should be sequenced within the clinical pathway, to improve value and health outcomes;

- expanding NICE’s technology appraisal process to cover devices, diagnostics, and digital products, supported by the introduction of a rules-based pathway for HealthTech, to reduce variation in access to high-impact medical technologies; and

- alignment of NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency processes, supported by information sharing and joint scientific advice, to speed up decision making and reduce the administrative burden for the system and industry, allowing new and innovative technologies to get to patients faster.