Page "National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence" Paragraph 30

A conservative shadow minister once criticized NICE for spending more on communications than assessments.

In its defence, NICE said the majority of its communications budget was spent informing doctors about which drugs had been approved and new guidelines for treatments and that the actual cost of assessing new drugs for the NHS includes money spent on NICE's behalf by the Department of Health.

When these were added to NICE's own costs, the total cost of the technology appraisal programme far outstrips the cost of NICE communications.