Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, whether the next Annual Assessment Report of NHS performance will contain a detailed description of the (a) catalysts and (b) barriers to the UK entering the top quartile of comparator countries for the speed of (i) adoption and (ii) uptake of innovative, cost-effective medicines by 2023.

The Department regularly reviews performance against the objectives, deliverables and requirements in the Government’s mandate to NHS England. The result of this assessment is set out in the Department’s annual assessment.

The upper quartile strategic goal in the Life Science Industrial Strategy is not government policy and will therefore not be part of the Annual Assessment process. However, partners across the system are committed to maximising the appropriate use of innovative medicines to deliver better patient outcomes and support the long-term sustainability of the National Health Service. The Government continues to support and improve the Innovation Scorecard which tracks the uptake of innovative products approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.  It is designed to help users (clinicians, patients, commissioning groups, Government and other stakeholders) to understand and monitor the uptake of innovations in the NHS, and to use this information to continue to improve performance. We are continuing to increase the number of products covered by the scorecard, as well as to widen the range of medical technologies covered, including innovative diagnostic and digital products.