Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the cost of prescription pain-killers to the NHS.

The Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill will strengthen the Secretary of State’s existing powers to control the cost of unbranded generic medicines by enabling the Secretary of State to set the price of a medicine when the manufacturer is in the voluntary pricing scheme but the medicine is not covered by that scheme. The Bill will also provide a statutory footing for current voluntary arrangements to obtain information on more products and from more companies, which will inform reimbursement arrangements for community pharmacies.