Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with (a) NICE and (b) NHS England on the (i) availability of and (ii) access to new treatments for patients with secondary breast cancer.

Ministers and Department officials have regular discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England on a range of issues including access to new treatments.

NICE makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether all new licensed medicines, including medicines for secondary breast cancer, should be routinely funded by the NHS. NHS England funds all NICE-recommended treatments for breast cancer with the funding available from the point of a positive draft NICE decision. Since 2018, NICE has recommended all but one of the treatments for breast cancer that it has assessed, including treatments for advanced breast cancer, such as Truqap and Korserdu, which are now available to eligible NHS patients. NICE recommended treatments are available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations.