Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of proposals to restrict access to prescription-based vitamin D maintenance, whether they will undertake a study into how such proposals might affect at-risk groups, as set out in NICE Guidelines 56-2, and in particular those in the at-risk groups on low or fixed incomes.

NHS England undertook a study into how the proposals in the consultation Conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care: A Consultation on guidance for CCGs might affect at-risk groups by accompanying the consultation with a full Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment. The Impact Assessment, Equality and Health Inequalities – Full Analysis Form – Conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care sets out how the proposals may affect groups protected by the Equality Act 2010 and those people on low income and ethnic minorities, including those at-risk groups, as set out in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. Copies of the consultation and Impact Assessment are attached.

In the summer months most people should be able to get all the vitamin D they need from sunlight on the skin. It is also found in some foods – oily fish, red meat, liver, egg yolks and fortified foods – such as most fat spreads and some breakfast cereals.

The Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances states that vitamins and minerals should be prescribed only in the management of actual or potential vitamin or mineral deficiency, and are not to be prescribed as dietary supplements. We understand that NHS England’s current consultation is in line with this. Prescribing vitamin D for maintenance would be classed as a treatment for prevention or as a dietary supplement.