To ask the Minister of Health to detail the steps he is taking to increase the variety of, and access to, drugs for metastatic cancer patients.

There are a large number of cancers which have the potential to metastasise, each of which will require a different treatment regime. The Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) has responsibility for commissioning all drug therapies in Northern Ireland in line with the Managed Entry process. In determining what new drugs should be adopted and made routinely available the HSCB is guided by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

My Department has a formal link with NICE under which its technology appraisals are reviewed locally for their legal and policy applicability here. Where found to be applicable they are endorsed by my Department for implementation within the Health and Social Care system. All new licensed cancer medicines, including extensions to existing licenses, are appraised by NICE to assess the clinical and cost effectiveness of the medicine (a technology appraisal).

In circumstances where NICE has not yet fully appraised, or does not recommend a particular drug, it is not routinely commissioned for use in Northern Ireland. However, the Individual Funding Request process provides a mechanism to consider requests from clinical consultants for treatments for individual patients that fall outside the range of services routinely commissioned.