Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the oral contribution of 25 October 2018 of the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Official Report, column 456, what assessment he has made of the effect that recent changes to NHS guidance to Clinical Commissioning Groups on conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care will have on the spread of headlice in deprived areas.

The Department has made no such assessment. The section of NHS England’s guidance which covers head lice says that chemical treatment for them is only used in exceptional cases; the usual treatment is wet combing. NHS England undertook an Equalities and Health Inequalities analysis ‘Conditions for which over the counter items should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: Equality and health inequalities full analysis form’ alongside the guidance, which assessed the impact of the guidance on those from low income households and those living in poverty. The analysis can be accessed using the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/otc-ehi-analysis-form.pdf