Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the effect on NHS resources was in each of the last three years of charging people with long-term health conditions for prescription drugs.

The requested information is not held. However, an estimate of the cost to the public purse in lost revenue from introducing an exemption from prescription charges for all people with long-term medical conditions was made as part of the review of prescription charges by Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, which was commissioned by a previous Government and published in 2010.

Professor Gilmore’s estimate for extending the prescription charge exemption to everyone with a long-term condition was at a cost of £360 to £430 million a year. This is likely to be an underestimate, given the increases in the prescription charge and increasing numbers of prescriptions dispensed since the Review was published. Overall, prescription charge revenue for 2014/15, which is the last year for which we have a complete audited figure, was £503.9 million derived from dispensing in the community. This is vital revenue for the National Health Service.

A number of prescription charge exemptions are in place, for which someone with a long-term condition may qualify. These include exemptions based on low income, such as certain out of work benefits and the NHS Low Income Scheme, and age. Where someone does not qualify for exemption, Prescription Prepayment Certificates are available. The three-month and 12-month certificates allow someone to claim as many prescriptions as they need for £29.10 and £104, respectively.