Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evidence NHS England used to reach the decision to set the proposed budget impact threshold for new medicines at £20million.

The proposed budget impact threshold is intended to help to ensure that technologies with a large budget impact can be introduced in a phased way that does not displace other effective treatments for NHS patients. NHS England has advised that the proposed budget impact threshold was based on consideration of the frequency and magnitude of high budget impact technologies that have recently received a recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). An analysis of positive technology appraisals published between June 2015 and June 2016 reveals that around 80% of new technologies recommended by NICE fell below the proposed budget impact threshold.