To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues on the prescription of (a) statins and (b) other cholesterol control medications.

The Department has not issued any guidance on the prescription of statins and other cholesterol control medications.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the national body responsible for issuing best practice guidance for the National Health Service in England, has published a clinical guideline on cardiovascular disease. This guideline, ‘Cardiovascular disease: risk assessment and reduction, including lipid modification’ was last updated in September 2016 and makes recommendations on the effective use of statins. NICE’s guideline is available at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg181

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has also published ‘Statins: benefits and risks’ which includes a section on things to consider when prescribing statins) and ‘Statins: interactions, and updated advice for atorvastatin’ which are available at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/drug-safety-update/statins-benefits-and-risks

https://www.gov.uk/drug-safety-update/statins-interactions-and-updated-advice-for-atorvastatin