§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps his Department has taken to inform general practitioners of the dangers of distalgesic, in 571W the light of the fact that this drug is still being widely prescribed.
§ Mr. MoyleDistalgesic is available only on prescription from a doctor, who will have regard to the needs of the individual patient in prescribing it. Information on contra-indications, warnings and the management of overdosage is given in the data sheet provided for doctors by the manufacturers. The Committee on Safety of Medicines has recently been giving consideration to the dangers of overdosage with Distalgesic and will remind doctors of these in the next edition of its publication, "Current Problems", which will be issued to all doctors and dentists shortly.
Year DHSS prosecutions*† Prosecutions in respect of organised fraud‡ Police and Post Office prosecutions† Totals 1973 … … … … 92 — 331 423 1974 … … … … 127 22 360 569 1975 … … … … 105 57 398 560 1976 … … … … 174 70 706 950 1977–78* … … … 295* 81 625 1,001* * Prior to 1977, the figures relate to calendar years and prosecutions undertaken. From 1977, the figures relate to the Department's statistical year which begins in February and, from that year, the departmental figures given are for prosecutions authorised. † Excluding organised fraud cases. ‡ The Department's headquarters specialist unit concerned with the investigation of organised fraud came into operation towards the end of 1974. Organised fraud prosecutions are normally undertaken by police. The figures quoted for organised fraud include all large-scale instrument of payment offences such as bulk theft, total forgeries and trafficking.