Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

(asked on 13th December 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the last impact assessment was undertaken of the prescription charge medical exemption list; if he will publish that impact assessment; and whether that impact assessment makes reference to the disproportionate effect on certain groups of Sickle Cell or Lupus.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 21st December 2017

The Department has not undertaken a formal impact assessment on the potential cost of eliminating or reducing prescription charges for people with long-term medical conditions not already covered by a medical exemption. However, the Prescription Charges Review (the Review) undertaken by Professor Sir Ian Gilmore on behalf of the Department, and published in 2010, estimated that extending exemption, at that time, to all those with a long-term condition would lead to a loss in revenue of between £360 and £430 million. This document is publicly available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prescription-charges-review-the-gilmore-report

The Review does not make specific reference to sufferers of lupus, however, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia and the Sickle Cell Society provided written evidence to the Review.

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