Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the variation in cost of contraceptives discourages health care professionals from offering the full range of contraceptives to women.

No specific action is being taken to address variation in cost for different forms of contraception. Clinical commissioning groups expect prescribers to take the cost of medicines into account in their prescribing but the first consideration is always choosing the product which best meets the clinical need of the individual patient. Prescribed contraception is available free of charge to women on the National Health Service.

The Department has not conducted a specific assessment of price and health professionals’ contraceptive prescribing patterns.