Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS provides fair access for all to life-extending drugs; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to ensuring that patients have access to new and effective treatments, including those which may extend life, on terms that represent value to the National Health Service and the taxpayer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing advice to the NHS on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. NHS commissioners are legally required to fund treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance, ensuring consistent access to clinically and cost effective drugs across England. NICE has introduced greater flexibility in the appraisal of effective drugs for patients at the end of their lives, which has helped to secure patient access to a number of potentially life-extending drugs.

We are commissioning an external review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology. This review will consider how to speed up access for NHS patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.