Written question asked by Crispin Blunt (Conservative) on Thursday, 13 April 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 April 2017. It was answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Conservative) on Monday, 24 April 2017 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Drugs: Licensing

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evaluation metrics his Department has put in place to assess the potential effect of NICE and NHS England's proposed changes to the arrangements for evaluating and funding drugs and other health technologies appraised through NICE's technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programme; and what plans he has to evaluate the effect of those changes 12 months after their implementation.

Answer: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England have committed to review the impact of the changes to the arrangements for the assessment and adoption of new treatments three years after their implementation. The Innovation Scorecard introduced in 2013 tracks uptake of selected drugs and other treatments recommended by NICE.

Secondary information