Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, under what criteria NHS England choose to fund a NICE-approved medicine before the three month period following the publication of a positive NICE recommendation; and what steps NHS England is taking to encourage uptake of medicines after positive NICE recommendations as soon as possible.

NHS England has advised that its standard time frame for a treatment recommended in a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal to be commissioned will be 90 days except in exceptional circumstances. These include where:

- the approved technology provides significant benefit to the patient population who will receive the technology compared to the current standard of care;

- there is significant unmet need in the target population such that patients may come to significant harm if the technology is not commissioned earlier; and

- the approved technology will release healthcare resources such that funding can be redirected to support other commissioning priorities.

Decisions to fund any recommended technology prior to 90 days will be made by NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group.