Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of companies' ability to pay the proposed charges for making technology appraisals and highly specialised technology recommendations.

The introduction of charges is intended to create a sustainable funding model for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes that better positions it to adapt to future changes in the life sciences sector. The Government carried out a public consultation on the introduction of charges and took full account of the comments received in deciding to proceed. The Government response to the consultation and the Impact Assessment, published alongside the regulations, assess the impact of the introduction of charging on all relevant stakeholders, including the life sciences industry and NICE. As explained in the Government response and Impact Assessment, small companies whose products are undergoing assessment will benefit from a 75% discount, which is intended to minimise barriers to the participation of small companies. The Government response is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/762725/government-response-to-nice-recommendations-consultation.pdf

The Impact Assessment at is available at the following link:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/171/pdfs/ukia_20180171_en.pdf