Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his most recent estimate is of the rebate which will be paid to the Exchequer in 2015-16 through the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme; what assessment he has made of the potential effect of greater use of unlicensed medicines for age-related macular degeneration on that rebate; and if he will make a statement.

The current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) payment estimate for the United Kingdom in 2015-16 is £995 million, as set out the note that accompanied my Written Statement HCWS90 of 11 December 2014, which is available at:

www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2014-12-11/HCWS90/

We have made no assessment of any effect that the use of unlicensed medicines for age-related macular degeneration might have on the level of PPRS payments.