Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with NHS England regarding delays in the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group's consideration of specialised treatments and the impact on people who cannot currently access treatments recommended by their clinician.

NHS England has advised that a meeting of its Clinical Priorities Advisory Group has been delayed whilst further work is undertaken to refine the overall decision making process. NHS England remains committed however, to ensuring that a timely decision is made about a range of investment proposals that have been put forward for the 2015-16 financial year.

At the November public meeting of the NHS England Board it was agreed to create a new Specialised Services Committee of the Board, and as a consequence to review the current governance arrangements covering this aspect of NHS England’s work.

It was decided to undertake a public consultation on the future approach to prioritising new treatments and interventions within specialised commissioning. This was considered at the December NHS England Board meeting and it was agreed that a 90 day consultation will be carried out in early 2015.

NHS England has advised that the short postponement of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group meeting will have no impact on the decision making timetable for commissioning NHS services from April 2015 onwards.

Existing treatments will continue to be commissioned in the meantime, ensuring that support for patients is maintained.