§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the total number of prescriptions dealt with in each year since 1978–79; and, of this total, how many were(a) free of charge, (b) covered by a pre-payment certificate, (c) paid for as a straightforward commercial transaction and (d) paid for in some other way.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 31 January 1994]: The available information is as shown in the table.
No breakdown is available between those prescription items which were free from charges and those covered by a pre-payment certificate. Column 5 shows, where available, the value of the pre-payment certificates issued in the respective years. No information is available regarding prescriptions paid for in some other way.
684W
NHS prescriptions (Scotland) 1 2 3 4 5 Year Number of prescription items Number dispensed free of charge Number paid for directly Value of pre-payment certificates £ Million Million Million Million 1978–79 35.78 22.35 13.43 N/A 1979–80 35.61 23.16 12.45 N/A 1980–81 35.49 24.88 10.61 N/A 1981–82 35.46 26.23 9.23 0.85 1982–83 36.50 27.69 8.81 1.00 1983–84 37.24 28.77 8.47 1.10 1984–85 37.77 29.75 8.02 1.27 1985–86 37.87 30.53 7.34 1.45 1986–87 38.51 31.56 6.95 1.64 1987–88 40.05 33.27 6.78 1.81 1988–89 41.12 34.41 6.71 2.02 1989–90 43.25 36.36 6.89 2.27 1990–91 44.37 37.70 6.67 2.63 1991–92 46.48 39.89 6.59 3.07 1992–93 48.30 41.79 6.51 3.50