Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of high drug prices on the budget of the NHS.

Nicola Blackwood

Total spending on drugs in 2010-11 was 12.5% of the health budget.

In 2015-16 total spend on drugs was 13.0% or 12.4% of the total budget if you include repayments to the Department from pharmaceutical companies as part of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).

Spending on drugs as a percentage of the overall departmental budget has remained fairly constant due to increased use of generic drugs and the PPRS.