§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the(a) 2002–2003 prescribing budget as notified to the Prescriptions Pricing Authority, (b) most recent forecast out-turn of prescribing expenditure for 2002–03, (c) projected (i) overspend and (ii) underspend, and (d) projected (i) overspend and (ii) underspend as a percentage of the prescribing budget were. [103767]
§ Mr. HuttonInformation on the prescribing budgets notified to the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA) by each Primary Care Trust has been placed in the Library. They are practice level prescribing budgets. They do not necessarily reflect the total resource set aside locally for prescribing as Primary Care Trusts may hold contingency reserves. Information is now available for the entire financial year (up to and including March 2003) so the outurn and overspend figures are actual figures, not forecasted ones.