To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve transparency of the data that underpins NICE's conclusions, in response to the findings in BMJ Open (Vol 11, Issue 10, Osipenko) that documents supporting NICE TA and HST recommendations remain redacted leading to clinical and economic data of importance to patients, clinicians and researchers being concealed.
Answered on
22 October 2021
The Department has made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body responsible for developing guidance in line with its established methods and processes. NICE is committed to ensuring its processes for health technology evaluation are as transparent as possible and considers it essential that evidence on which its committees’ decisions are based is made available to stakeholders and the public. To ensure faster access to treatments for patients, NICE’s appraisals are conducted in parallel with the regulatory process wherever possible. NICE’s approach to handling confidential information for health technology evaluation is set out in its guide to the processes of technology appraisal.