Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing the gluten-free subsidy card scheme operating in Wales across England.

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of introducing the gluten-free (GF) subsidy card scheme used in Wales across England.

In the UK, health is a largely devolved matter and local health arrangements such as the Welsh GF subsidy card are a matter for the devolved administrations. The devolved nations make their own decisions on GF prescription and other charges and may choose to spend proportionately more of their budget on the provision of gluten free food against other competing priorities.

The national prescribing position in England is that gluten-free bread and mixes can be provided to coeliac patients on National Health Service prescription and a wide range of these items are listed in Part XV of the Drug Tariff. However, local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) can restrict or end the prescribing of GF food locally. ICBs are autonomous bodies and as such they retain the right to make prescribing policies that meet the needs of their local population within their allocated resource.

Targeted financial support schemes have been shown to introduce additional complexity for patients and the NHS. Similar schemes piloted at a local level for gluten free food were discontinued due to lack of patient engagement and the administrative burden involved.