Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 August 2020 to Question 72910 on Drugs: Expenditure, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the guidance on prescribing over-the-counter items on health outcomes.

The Department has made no assessment. In March 2018 NHS England and NHS Improvement published ‘Conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care: Guidance for Clinical Commissioning Groups’. This includes a general exception enabling prescribers to continue to prescribe where the clinician considers that patients’ ability to self-manage is compromised as a consequence of medical, mental health or significant social vulnerability.

Prescribing trends and spend for each item within the scope of this guidance is monitored by commissioners on an on-going basis which, alongside further analysis of the underlying data and impact, will inform any update of the guidance.