Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 22 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2005. It was answered by Jane Kennedy (Labour) on Friday, 2 December 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Advisory Committee on Topic Selection

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the length of time taken was to select each drug that has been referred for each of the stages of her Department's topic selection process for drugs and treatments referred to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Answer: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.The Department and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) are currently reviewing the current arrangements for selecting topics for NICE'S work programme. We expect to be able to say more about this later in the year.The typical timescale for referral of appraisal topics to NICE for consultation on their remit and scope is in the region of 9–12 months from consideration by the Advisory Committee on Topic Selection.

Secondary information