Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials have held with (i) NICE and (ii) NHS England about issuing guidelines on the use of vaginal mesh operations.

Departmental officials have had a number of discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about the development of guidance on vaginal meshes. NICE has published seven out of eight pieces of Interventional Procedure guidelines; with the final piece due to be published in 15 December 2017. The NICE Clinical Guidance on urinary incontinence is due to be published in 2019, with a consultation on the draft guidance planned for 2018.

Ministers and officials have met with NHS England on a number of occasions to discuss the recommendations that were set out in the NHS England Mesh Oversight Group final report that was published in July 2017. The recommendations included an e-learning resource for general practitioners and the production of information leaflets outlining the benefit and risks of all treatment options available for both patients and clinicians.