§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total number of persons engaged in pricing and checking prescriptions in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. AlisonI assume that the hon. Member is referring to the staff employed by the Joint Pricing Committee for England and the Welsh Pricing Committee. These staff carry out not only pricing and checking of prescriptions but also some analysis of prescribing costs. The numbers employed by the two Committees for the five years 1966–70 were as follows:
1966 1,775 1967 1,815 1968 1,756 1969 1,826 1970 1,871