§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the annual expenditure on establishing, and maintaining, the indicative prescribing scheme for NHS doctors.
§ Dr. MawhinneyInformation is held centrally only on the cost of issuing monthly expenditure statements to 413W general practitioners, family health services authorities and regional health authorities. The figures do not distinguish between the costs of issuing statements in relation to the indicative prescribing scheme and the prescribing element of fund holders' budgets. The total cost to the Prescription Pricing Agency of issuing these statements is as in the table:
1990–91 £?000 1991–92 £?000 Capital 6,905 359 Revenue 2,499 3,311
§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the expenditure on the prescription analysis and cost scheme in each of the last five years.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe prescription analysis and cost scheme—PACT—is an operational system of the Prescription Pricing Authority. The costs of PACT cannot be identified separately.
§ Mr. AlexanderTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the annual expenditure on supporting the publication and distribution of(a) the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, (b) the "Prescribers' Journal", (c) the British National Formulary and (d) bulletins from the Medicines Resource Centre in each of the past five years.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe information is as follows:
(a) The Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin1
Expenditure (£) 1987–88 608,625 1988–89 660,642 1989–90 723,482 1990–91 2750,863 1991–92 827,305 1 Includes subscription and distribution on costs only. 2 Figures for the years to 1990–91 include expenditure for the Adverse Drugs Reactions Bulletin which was issued quarterly with the Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin. This was discontinued in June 1990. (b) The Prescribers' Journal1
Expenditure (£) 1990–912 3146,977 1991–92 183,510 1 Includes subscription and distribution costs only. 2 October 1990 to March 1991. 3 Information is not held centrally prior to October 1990. (c) The British National Formulary1
Expenditure (£) 1987–88 958,996 1988–89 1,022,731 1989–90 1,058,204 1990–91 1,191,169 1991–92 1,296,320 1 Includes subscription and distribution costs only. (d) Medicines Resource Centre (MeReC) Bulletin4
414W
Expenditure (£) 1990–91 250,000 1991–92 275,000 4 Includes total running costs.
§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the terms of reference and membership of the prescribing task force.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe prescribing task force is a multi-disciplinary group of officials within the Department charged with examining a range of issues relating to general practitioner prescribing. There are no formal terms of reference.