Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who the members are of the NHS England high cost devices steering group; and what the role of that group is.

The steering group will be chaired by the High-Cost Devices Senior Responsible Owner within the NHS England Pricing and Costing team. To maintain the high-cost devices exclusions list, the Pricing and Costing team obtain advice and recommendations from experts working in the relevant fields. The members of this steering group will work in healthcare or pharmaceutical capacities, independent of any private enterprise or commerce, and will be from the Department, National Health Service commissioning, specialist units of the NHS England Pricing team, and the NHS Classifications Service and National Casemix Office of NHS Digital.

There are currently 28 members, of whom, 14 members are from NHS England, nine from providers, four from representative bodies, and one from a commissioner. We are withholding the individual names and job titles of non-senior NHS England staff members, as well as names and job titles for external members of staff.

The steering group provides an independent review of candidate devices, by assessing their suitability for inclusion on the high-cost devices exclusions list, based on pre-existing acceptance criteria. A copy of the nomination form for the addition or removal of a drug or device to be excluded from NHS Payment Scheme prices, is attached for your information.