Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Getting it Right First Time's report on Dermatology, published in August 2021, what progress she has made on the implementation of recommendation 13a.

The Getting it Right First Time Programme (GIRFT) approached the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and collaboratively identified the issues around uptake of new drugs and the variation in use of biologics.

As part of the GIRFT peer review process, NHS England has recommended the adoption of consultant pharmacists who can more quickly implement NICE guidance on biologics, use of generics where appropriate and new drugs where beneficial. NHS England has also developed data metrics for the Model Health System which look at the use of both individual and grouped biologics. These will show the variation in prescribing across the country.