Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether health technology appraisal committees can apply the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's end-of-life criteria flexibly when appraising treatments for patients with terminal illness.

Appraisal Committees are independent advisory bodies responsible for making recommendations to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the clinical and cost effectiveness of treatments for use in the National Health Service.

NICE’s Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal is published at:

www.nice.org.uk/article/PMG9/chapter/Foreword

and describes how its Appraisal Committees reach decisions on treatments. It provides details of the criteria that need to be met in order to apply greater flexibility in the appraisal of life-extending drugs for patients at the end of their lives.