Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 12 May 2016 to Question 36856, on heart diseases, when his Department plans to instruct NICE to develop specific clinical guidelines on the diagnosis, referral and treatment of patients with heart valve disease.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning clinical guidelines on healthcare topics from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

NHS England has advised that it has no plans to ask NICE to develop specific clinical guidelines on the diagnosis, referral and treatment of patients with heart valve disease at this time.