§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of prescriptions issued by doctors for powerful tranquillisers in each single year since 1979, giving a breakdown of their categories.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe estimated number of prescriptions issued by general practitioners and dispensed by retail chemists in England for sedatives and tranquillisers each year since 1979 was as follows:
Million 1979 21.8 1980 19.9 1981 19.5 1982 19.0 1983 17.6 This group includes all of those drugs likely to be considered powerful tranquillisers. It is not our practice to publish prescribing figures for individual proprietary drugs since these are of commercial value.