Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of medicines that were prescribed by doctors that were not available on local formularies in the last 12 months; and if he will make an assessment of the impact of medicine availability on prescriptions made by doctors.

No estimate has been made as the information requested is not held centrally. The purpose of a formulary is to guide prescribers to preferred products rather than mandating what they can and cannot prescribe. Prescribers are still able to prescribe medicines that are not listed on a formulary.