Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have asked NHS England whether it will rationalise the number of committees concerned with assessing the funding of treatments for patients with rare diseases.

NHS England substantially revised their decision making process regarding specialised services at the end of 2014 in preparation for work planning in 2015.

NHS England has responsibility for the commissioning of specialised services and is currently consulting on changes to the principles and processes by which it makes decisions on prioritising investment in specialised services.

NHS England has provided assurance that any prioritisation which is urgent on clinical grounds will continue to be dealt with quickly through their existing procedures. The route for individual funding requests remains in place.

The consultation can be found at:

www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/investing-in-specialised-commissioning