Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse has been of free repeat prescriptions in each of the last three years.

Whether a prescription is a repeat or not is not indicated on the prescription. Therefore, the cost to the public purse of free repeat prescriptions is not recorded centrally. However, we know, for the past three years, that around almost 90% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.