Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in switching asthma patients from reliever medication to combination medication, in line with updated guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the British Thoracic Society.

To support implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, NHS England has been engaging with health system partners to coordinate resources and implementation efforts, to make sure that patients are on the appropriate treatment regimen and are using their inhaler at the right time, with the right technique.

The over-prescribing of reliever inhalers amongst people with asthma has seen a steady fall over the past few years. The percentage of patients on the Quality and Outcomes Framework asthma register who received six or more Short Acting Beta-2 Agonist reliever inhaler prescriptions over the previous 12 months fell from 19.8% in April 2022 to 15.9% in February 2025.