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Advisory Committee on Topic Selection

Answer

The terms of reference of the Advisory Committee for Topic Selection are:"On the basis of the criteria agreed by Ministers, assess the requirement for guidance in respect of clinical issues identified by the National Horizon Scanning Centre, by the National Co-ordinating Centre Health Technology Assessment, by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other sources of internal and external advice.""To advise Ministers whether referral to NICE is the most appropriate means of meeting those requirements.""Where referral to the NICE is recommended, to advise further whether:""(a) guidance should take the form of a technology appraisal, a clinical guideline, or some other combination or form of guidance;""(b) (in the case of technology appraisals of new technologies) whether guidance should issue at around the expected time of launch, or whether the appraisal should be deferred for a period."The Advisory Committee for Topic Selection is chaired by a senior Department official and is made up of representatives of"the professions—medical, nursing, primary care and allied healthcare;""patient groups—the Consumers Association, Royal National Institute for Deaf People, The Pain Society and Diabetes UK;""the national health service—a mental health trust, an acute trust, a strategic health authority and a primary care trust;""industry—the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries and the Association of British Healthcare Industries;""the Director of the Health Technology Assessment Programme and the Chairman of the Technology Assessment Services Collaboration; and""representatives of key policy areas within the Department."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

440 c839-40W;440 c839-40W; 31929

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Functions Membership Advisory Committee on Topic Selection

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk