To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether primary care trusts are required to provide funding for clinical decisions and medicines included within recommendations by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence contained in Technology Appraisal Guidance; and under what circumstances a primary care trust may decide not to fund clinical decisions and medicines within such recommendations. (324371)

Primary care trusts are legally required to make funding available for drugs and treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as part of a technology appraisal within three months of NICE'S final guidance being published. Patients also have a right to receive such treatments, where clinically appropriate, under the NHS Constitution. There is a small number of technology appraisals for which this legal requirement has been waived or amended.