Chamber and committees

Pricing of branded medicines is currently a reserved matter. The proposals for Value Based Pricing for medicines licensed from 1 January 2014 are being taken forward by the UK Government’s Department of Health. The Scottish Government is supportive of the principle of Value Based Pricing and the Scottish Government continues to work with the Department of Health on its development and on successor arrangements to the current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) in relation to medicines licensed prior to 1 January 2014.

The operational arrangements for managing the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund to cover the cost of successful Individual Patient Treatment Requests (IPTRs) for high cost, low volume orphan medicines within the NHS in Scotland are still in development.

The Scottish Government is aware that a number of NHS boards has prepared briefing for staff on welfare benefit changes. The Scottish Directors of Public Health Group has commissioned the Scottish Public Health Network to undertake work to identify possible mitigation measures and interim guidance has been published. Scottish Government officials have established a group of stakeholders to look at the potential impact of welfare benefit reform on population health and on demand for healthcare services. This group will report into the Scottish Government’s Welfare Reform Governance structure.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12543 on 27 February 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12543 on 27 February 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12543 on 27 February 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12543 on 27 February 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The service provision is expected to commence on 2 April 2013.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12543 on 27 February 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Individual NHS boards may have conducted their own, smaller-scale, staff survey since the last NHSScotland Staff Survey in 2010 but we do not hold this information. The 2010 NHSScotland Staff Survey provides information on the level of reported incidences of bullying and harassment broken down by individual NHS board. This information can be found at the following link:

http://www.staffgovernance.scot.nhs.uk/monitoring-employee-experience/staff-survey/.

It is for individual NHS boards to decide what, if any, action to take in response to the findings from the staff survey. We would expect any such actions to be recorded in boards’ staff governance action plans.