Health Bill [HL]

We are really out of knockabout territory on this issue. In my view, this is a very serious amendment because it requires greater transparency. I congratulate the noble Lord. I had originally intended to table something similar on Report, and I am pleased that he has helped us with his amendment because I am still working in that area. We can expect the Government to reject the amendment. I may be wrong but I suspect that that is the case. I should like to use this amendment to appeal to those outside who can help us to table something perhaps better on Report. We have to address a number of issues which may prove difficult in implementing a system of this nature, but I should like to know what they are in some detail so that we can argue them out on Report in a more mature and sensible way. There may well be a problem of price identification, which the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, has just referred to. Also, is it the retail price that should be shown? Perhaps another price would more accurately reflect the actual cost to the National Health Service. What happens in the case of drugs that are both over the counter and prescribable? There may be different price structures there. Do issues of competition arise? What is the view of pharmacies and the pharmaceutical companies on this level of transparency on the market more generally? What would the impact be on NHS procurement policies? Does it have implications for the export and import pricing of drugs? I am bringing up issues that might complicate things, but I do so only because I strongly support the principle and should like to know what the arguments against it are so that we can sit down and work out, if the Government do not accept the principle at this stage and elsewhere on this Bill, how in future we can make it work on the Floor of the House and ultimately convince the Government of the principle. I support the amendment. I would not like to tell the Committee the annual cost of my drugs to the health service, but I suspect that they run into many thousands of pounds. To be frank, I should like to see on every bottle, every injection and every pill box what the costs are to the NHS. It is in the public interest that we all know what we are costing the taxpayer.