Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of ring-fencing part of the rebate paid by the pharmaceutical industry in the next iteration of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme for the purposes of investing in NHS data infrastructure.
Under the current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) all payments go back into spending on improving patients’ health and care. Following normal Government accounting rules, there is no separately identified ring-fenced funding stream associated with the PPRS payment.
Informal discussions have already begun with industry regarding future medicines pricing arrangements. Formal negotiations will begin shortly.