Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether one possible outcome of NHS England’s consultation, Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: consultation on guidance for CCGs, may be a limit imposed on the pain management treatments prescribed within NICE guidelines for cancer patients.

NHS England’s consultation on draft guidance for clinical commissioning groups on a range of items that should not routinely be prescribed in primary care ended on 21 October. The draft guidance seeks to ensure that the National Health Service is able to secure best value from its use of medicines and therefore focuses on areas of prescribing that have been found to be unsafe, ineffective or where there are more cost effective alternatives.

We would not want to pre-empt any outcome following NHS England’s careful analysis of the responses it has received.