Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment has been made of whether there have been delays to patient access to treatment as a result of the proposals being implemented by the NICE and NHS England joint changes to technology appraisals and highly specialised technologies.

The changes to technology appraisals and highly specialised technologies are being implemented for topics with a first evidence submission to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) after 1 April. It is therefore too soon for products under the new arrangements to have received their final guidance from NICE.