§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the total number of invalidity benefit claimants for each year since 1971; and if he will also detail the numbers and proportions (a) sent for medical examination and (b) who then, as a result, lost their right to invalidity benefit during each of these years.
§ Mr. Prentice[pursuant to his reply, 13 November 1980, c. 432]: Statistics of medical examinations by the regional medical services do not differentiate between sickness benefit and contributory invalidity benefit. The following table therefore relates to both benefits combined.
General practitioners are free to exercise their professional judgement in relation to such advice and guidance as they may be offered about prescribing matters from the Monthly Index of Medical Specialties publications or any other source. MIMS publications are commercial productions which, inter alia, provide general practitioners with a catalogue of available proprietary pharmaceutical items, together with the price and the manufacturer's recommended dosage.
All general practitioners receive a copy of this information each month from the publisher. Independent information on drugs and therapeutics is provided by the Department to general practitioners. This includes 39W Prescribers' Journal and the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin; will also include from next year the new-style British National Formulary.
If the right hon. Gentleman has a particular point in mind, perhaps he will write to me.