Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to monitor progress on access to new NHS-approved drugs for blood cancer patients.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE has been able to recommend a number of medicines for use in the NHS for the treatment of different types of blood cancer.

NHS England funds NICE-recommended cancer medicines from the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of a positive draft NICE guidance, bringing forward patient access by approximately five months than would otherwise be the case. All drugs on the Cancer Drugs Fund have reached expected uptake levels within three months of a positive NICE recommendation.