Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his policy that clinicians are able to prescribe whichever product on Part IX of the Drug Tariff is considered by the clinician to be most appropriate for a patient’s needs.

Decisions about policy on the provision of medical products available from Part IX of the Drug Tariff are a matter for local clinical commissioning groups and National Health Service trusts, taking account of the needs of their local populations and national guidance, e.g. ‘Items which should not routinely be prescribed in primary care: Guidance for CCGs’ which was updated by NHS England and NHS Improvement and NHS Clinical Commissioners in June 2019. Clinicians are expected to prescribe products that meet their patients’ clinical needs taking account of local commissioning policies as appropriate.