Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has provided to (a) Clinical Commissioning Groups and (b) local NHS providers on the introduction of new antimicrobials; and how this guidance supports the antimicrobial resistance five-year action plan.

Optimising the use of antimicrobials is central to the United Kingdom’s efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The UK’s five-year national action plan for AMR sets the ambition to reduce UK antimicrobial use in humans by 15% by 2024.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) supports stewardship of current and new antimicrobials through its Managing Common Infections antimicrobial prescribing guidelines for all care settings.

NICE also produces Evidence Summaries of the best available information on an antimicrobial to guide decision-making, both nationally within NHS England and NHS Improvement and locally, for example within a clinical commissioning group, a National Health Service trust, or across a local health economy.