My Lords, if the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, speaks with temerity given the other speakers on this group, I ask noble Lords to consider how it feels to be the Minister responding.
I assure the noble Lord, Lord Patel, that Health Ministers may not be completely transformed on leaving government, but discussions that may have taken place in private can become much more public once they are on the other side of the fence.
I turn to Amendment 17, with which it may be convenient to take Amendments 79, 85 and 124 in the names of my noble friend Lord Lansley and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. On the first half of Amendments 17 and 79, my noble friend conceded that the Bill likely already delivers what is within its scope to deliver. The consideration of the availability of medicines and medical devices when making regulations is relevant. This is what sits behind the ability of the NHS to meet the needs of patients, where it relates to regulation. The Bill simply does not deal with matters related to the NHS supply chain. It supports it by ensuring that medicines and medical devices that are safe are available on the UK market. As my noble friend knows, and has referred to, these matters are set out in other pieces of legislation. NICE was established as a statutory body by the Act that he took through as Secretary of State. I know that his Amendment 85 also probes on issues to do with the NHS supply chain.
I was interested to hear my noble friend Lord Lansley’s fuller explanation of the intention behind the amendment: to enable access to innovative medicines in the NHS. I know that he has done a huge amount to improve such access in the NHS. Although the Government do not think that this amendment is necessary to achieve his goal, I hope that when we come to debate later groups of amendments, including on the Innovative Medicines Fund, I can provide him with further reassurance on this matter.
On the second parts of Amendments 17 and 79, which deal with the results of the consultation on subsequent regulations that flow from the Bill, my noble friend Lord Lansley may have noted government Amendment 126, which we shall reach in a later group. This would add to the consultation requirements in the Bill. On the result of any consultation, I assure him that there is already case law requiring that consultation responses are taken into account. This is reflected in the Cabinet Office consultation principles, which require the Government to explain the responses that have been received from consultees and how these have informed the policy. A public consultation must be formally responded to. Not only that, the Explanatory Memorandum that must accompany a statutory instrument must explain the consultation outcome. Between these various documents, the Government must not only take into account the consultation but set out what has changed as a consequence of that consultation. I therefore think that the amendment may render these changes unnecessary, as the requirement to respond and explain is already there.
My noble friend Lord Lansley also tabled Amendment 85. While I understand his interest in ensuring that we have the appropriate funding and frameworks in place so that NICE-approved devices are made available to patients—an issue already touched on in the previous discussion on attractiveness—he may have anticipated my saying to him, once again, that the Bill is not necessarily the appropriate vehicle.
None the less, my noble friend and other noble Lords have raised an incredibly important issue. I reassure him and others that the NHS medtech funding mandate will be launched in April 2021. It will get selected NICE-approved, cost-saving devices, diagnostics and digital products to patients more quickly and ensure
that specified innovations are funded locally. In advance of the mandate’s launch and to support adoption of relevant technologies, the NHS standard contract has been updated to include reference to the medtech funding mandate. I hope that that provides my noble friend with the reassurances that he seeks from me. We are on the way. This Bill is not the means to the end, and I hope he feels sufficiently assured to refrain from pressing his amendment to a Division, when we reach it.
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To my noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy and the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, I can say that, while I would like to continue in a spirit of positivity, I can go no further today. However, I shall take the points that they have made specifically on this issue back to the department.
I turn to Amendment 124, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. I acknowledge his long-term interest in, and commitment to, NICE and the important role that it plays in ensuring that patients have early access to promising new treatments. Indeed, as he said, he was a Health Minister when NICE was first created. The matters that the noble Lord raises are already dealt with in existing legislation and outside the remit of this Bill. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 already delivers on the thrust of his amendment, as NICE must
“have regard to … the desirability of promoting innovation in the provision of health services”.
Existing legislation also provides that the NHS must fund NICE-recommended medicines, and I have spoken of the arrangements coming in for medical devices.
The noble Lord explained that he seeks greater reassurance on NICE’s work to support innovation. NICE, like the rest of the health system, is constantly keeping methods under review to ensure they are appropriate and support the speed of innovation in the life sciences sector, and that they get new innovations into the hands of patients quickly. It is now doing so in relation to its methods and process manual, in consultation with a range of stakeholders, including industry and academics. NICE will publish a revised manual and related impact assessment when that process is completed.
On the specific point that the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, made in relation to this manual, and with the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, I shall follow up on some of the more detailed points raised.
On parliamentary accountability, every year a copy of NICE’s annual report and accounts is laid before Parliament; this will include what NICE has done to improve the availability of innovative medicines and medical devices within the National Health Service and the key role that NICE plays in the attractiveness of the UK life sciences sector.
Finally, I admire the ingenuity of the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, in finding the space to raise the issues that he wished to raise in this debate. I shall write to him and follow up on those issues.
I hope that my noble friend Lord Lansley has heard enough that is reassuring to withdraw Amendment 17 and not to press his other amendments, and that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, is similarly assured that he will not move his.