Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the Government is able to allocate Competition and Markets Authority fines collected from pharmaceutical manufacturers Pfizer and distributor Flynn Pharma for the purposes of research and treatment for epilepsy patients.

The decision of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to fine Pfizer and Flynn Pharma is currently under appeal. As with other fine income, fines levied by the CMA for breaches of competition law are returned to the Consolidated Fund. Receipts from this fine will therefore help fund the £10 billion increase in National Health Service funding set out at the Spending Review. A separate process is available for the Secretary of State for Health to recover damages suffered as a result of this case through the courts. This money would flow back to the NHS for the benefit of patients, based on clinical priorities.