Speeches

Robert Neill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what payments have been made to the devolved administrations under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme to date; on which date each such payment was made; what methodology is used to calculate the level of such payments; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The Government recognises that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) payments that companies make under the 2014 scheme in respect of the United Kingdom need to be allocated to each of the devolved administrations in a fair way.

The PPRS payments that companies make under the scheme in respect of the UK are allocated to each of the four countries on an agreed basis each year. Apportionment is not covered by the terms of the PPRS. However, the four countries agreed the current method for apportioning income received under the 2014 PPRS which is based on primary care data for spend on licensed branded medicines, as the most consistent data set available across the UK. Income is apportioned using prescribing data for the same period as the income relates.

The attached table includes the quarterly PPRS income paid to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from Q1 2014 to Q2 2015. It should be noted that as well as PPRS payments this income also includes historic cash payments made by companies that were members of the 2009 PPRS.

As requested, the following table contains information regarding the dates PPRS payments were made to the devolved administrations:

PPRS Payment

Historic Cash Payment

2014 Q1

21 August 2014

10 October 2014

2014 Q2 and Q3

20 February 2015

20 February 2015

2014 Q4

8 April 2015

8 April 2015

2015 Q1

3 July 2015

24 July 2015

2015 Q2

13 October 2015

16 October 2015