Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of how many and what proportion of repeat prescriptions are unused.

As identified in the National Overprescribing Review, published in September 2021, addressing overprescribing is a key area of opportunity for delivering greater value for money in medicines in the National Health Service, and it forms part of NHS England’s ongoing Medicines Value programme priorities. Evidence is limited but the review estimated that at least 10% of the total number of prescription items in primary care need not have been issued.

The review report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-overprescribing-review-report