Question reference: S5W-30006
- Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 19 June 2020
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Current status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 July 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it had with the UK Government regarding the risk of any part NHS Scotland being opened up to outsourcing and privatisation, including to US corporations, under a US-UK trade deal.
Answer
Any future trade deals must recognise the specific characteristic of the NHS in Scotland – including the very reduced role of private providers compared to the NHS in England – and must not open up the NHS to further privatisation.
The Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament's devolved responsibility for the NHS, social care and public health services and interventions, must be protected. Scottish Government Ministers have made clear in person and in correspondence that the UK Government must not cast doubt on the future of the NHS as a public service or risk access to medicine through changes to pharmaceutical pricing and copyrighting.