PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Rare Diseases: Health Services (1 March 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect on patients with rare diseases of NICE's proposed changes to eligibility criteria for the Highly Specialised Technology pathway.

Asked by:
Bob Blackman (Conservative)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is reviewing the criteria used to decide whether a new technology should be evaluated through the highly specialised technologies (HST) programme as part of the review of its health technology evaluation methods and processes.

NICE is currently consulting on the guiding principles for the HST programme as part of the consultation on the case for change to its processes for health technology evaluation and expects to consult on the proposed HST criteria this summer. The purpose of reviewing the criteria is to make them clearer, more specific and the outcome easier to understand and more predictable for stakeholders.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
9 March 2021