Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the money that would be accrued to the public purse of the introduction of charges by NICE for companies whose products are selected for technology appraisal.

The Department published a consultation on 10 August titled ‘NICE's technology appraisal and highly specialised technology work programmes – Charging and Appeal Panels’ which ran until 14 September 2018.

Prior to the consultation, the Department and the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) considered a number of options as well as charging. These are described in the consultation document and Impact Assessment which are published at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nice-recommendations-charging-and-appeal-panels

The document also explains that based on current activity levels and the proposed charges, NICE expects it would generate £10 million per annum from charging and that, should charges be introduced, they would be reviewed after years one and two and periodically thereafter to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on the willingness of companies, including small companies, to launch products in the United Kingdom.

The Government will carefully consider comments received in response to the consultation and will publish its response in due course.