Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the decision in England to end or restrict gluten free prescriptions on (a) the health of affected patients and (b) additional costs faced by affected patients.

No recent assessment has been made. In 2017, the Government at the time decided to restrict gluten-free prescribing to bread and mixes only. The majority of consultation responses were in favour of this. An analysis of the anticipated impact of the decision was published alongside the consultation response and is available on the GOV.UK website at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/availability-of-gluten-free-foods-on-nhs-prescription