§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he will publish in theOfficial Report a table showing for each year since 1970 and his estimate for the current financial year the number of prescriptions paid for by the patient under the National Health Service by the non-aged together with the number in the population liable to the charge; and if he will provide an estimate of the average number and cost of prescriptions charged each year to a married manual worker with two children.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe table gives the numbers of prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies which attracted a prescription charge for each year since 1970. This excludes prescriptions dispensed to people who purchased pre-payment certificates and prescriptions dispensed by doctors. For the current financial year we estimate that about 58.3 million prescriptions will attract a prescription charge. I regret that we are unable to give an estimate for each year of the numbers in the population liable for prescription charges, and we are unable to provide an478W estimate of the average number and cost of prescriptions charged each year to a married manual worker with two children.
Year Numbers of prescriptions which attracted a charge (millions) 1970 115.0 1971 106.4 1972 106.3 1973 109.5 1974 109.2 1975 107.7 1976 110.2 1977 109.6 1978 114.3 1979 108.4 1980 90.3 1981 76.2 1982 72.8 1983 69.6 1984 66.6 1985 60.6 1986 58.3 1987 58.7
§ Mr. FisherTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table showing how many people have been exempt from prescription charges, in each of the last 10 years, by virtue of being(a) over pensionable age, (b) a child, (c) pregnant, (d) in receipt of qualifying benefit, (e) on low income and (f) other exempted conditions.
§ Mrs. Currie[holding answer 11 November 1988]The table shows the estimated numbers (in millions) of people who have been exempt from charges in each of the last 10 years because they were(a) over pensionable age (b) aged under 16, (c) an expectant mother, or a mother who had given birth to a child in the last 12 months, (d) in receipt of supplementary benefit or family income supplement (or were an adult dependent of such a person), (e) on a low income. Some people were exempt for more than one reason. The information on categories (a) to (c) is for England, on categories (d) and (e) for Great Britain.
I regret that information is not available on the numbers of people exempt from charges for other reasons.
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) 1978 8.2 10.8 0.7 3.7 n.a. 1979 8.2 10.6 0.8 3.6 1— 1980 8.3 10.4 0.8 3.9 1— 1981 8.4 10.3 0.8 4.8 0.1 1982 8.4 10.1 0.7 5.6 0.2 1983 8.5 9.9 0.7 5.8 0.3 1984 8.5 9.8 0.8 6.1 0.2 1985 8.6 9.7 0.7 n.a. 0.3 1986 8.6 9.6 0.7 6.5 0.3 1987 8.7 9.6 0.7 6.4 0.3 1 less than 0.1