Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the protocols under evaluation by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group since 2024 were deferred to consideration in a future year; why any such deferrals were necessary; and what steps they are taking to ensure sufficient funding is allocated from existing budgets to support access to treatments for patients impacted by any such deferrals, including through the Innovative Medicines Fund.

There were eight policy propositions at the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) Prioritisation Meeting in May 2024 that were not commissioned due to insufficient resource, with further information available at the NHS.UK website.

CPAG makes recommendations on the relative priority of treatments, and funding decisions are taken against a defined budget which is set annually based on affordability.

The CPAG process aims to ensure that investment targets the treatments offering the greatest clinical benefit and value for money for patients and taxpayers. Treatments that are not prioritised for funding remain eligible for reconsideration in subsequent CPAG prioritisation rounds in line with the published process.

The Innovative Medicines Fund is reserved for medicines that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has concluded are plausibly cost-effective and for which additional evidence is required to address resolvable clinical uncertainty.