Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access: heads of agreement, published on 23 November 2018, whether NHS England’s commissioning support programme will be discontinued.

It is expected that the commissioning support programme, which provides support for service development relating to medicines, as well as medical devices or other sorts of intervention, will continue for 2019/20. The new voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access includes new commitments to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraisals for medicines; any implications will be considered through implementation of the new scheme.