To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what payments were made to the devolved administrations under the terms of the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme in each quarter of (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16 to date.
Answered on
2 November 2015
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 payments which is based on primary care spend for 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 Health Departments explored with industry whether an accurate four country split of PPRS sales data could be obtained to inform the apportionment, but not all companies are able to provide this data.
The attached table includes the total quarterly PPRS income paid to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from Q1 2014 to Q2 2015. Note that as well as PPRS payments this income also includes historic cash payments made by companies that were members of the 2009 PPRS.
It should be noted that companies are currently submitting audited reports for 2014 which is likely to lead to some adjustments to the PPRS income already paid.
The Department routinely publishes PPRS aggregate net sales and payment information quarterly at:
PPRS: quarterly net sales and payment information - Publications - GOV.UK
The Department published estimates of the levels of PPRS payments expected in 2014/15 and 2015/16 when the payment percentage for 2015 was published in December 2014 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pprs-payment-percentage
The Department intends to publish updated estimates for 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 in December 2015 when the payment percentage for 2016 is announced. The Department is not able to provide estimates for later years of the scheme as they would be very misleading due to the uncertainty involved.