Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the rebate they receive from pharmaceutical companies under the new Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme agreement will be reallocated as an additional resource to the National Health Service.

The Department has received £74 million from members of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) in respect of PPRS payments for the first quarter of the calendar year 2014. The Department intends to publish aggregate information on sales reports and payments made under the scheme on a quarterly basis. The first such publication was made on 30 June and can be found on the Government's website at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/pprs-quarterly-net-sales-and-payment-information

In respect of England, the anticipated payments in 2014-15 have been passed on to NHS England through the Mandate and as such were included within commissioner allocations.

The Government is committed to improving access to clinically and cost-effective medicines including innovative new medicines. As part of implementing the PPRS, NHS England and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry are discussing how best to improve access to, and optimise patient outcomes from, these medicines.