§ Mr. Thurnhamasked the Secretary of State for Social Services for what purposes the computers for the Prescription Pricing Authority are being used; and what savings are being achieved.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe main functions of the Prescription Pricing Authority are the pricing of pharmacists' and dispensing doctors' prescriptions and the provision of information on prescribing and drug usage. We are currently introducing computers at the authority for both these purposes. We are achieving only minimal savings at present because of the need to retrain staff for the conversion from the manual to computerised system. We anticipate that there will however be significant savings once the computerisation project is completed in 1986.