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 effectiveness of the NHS prescription exemption-checking system.

While the Department has not undertaken a formal evaluation of the National Health Service prescription exemption‑checking system, it has put in place arrangements to balance timely access to medicines with proportionate protection of public funds.

The Prescription Exemption Checking Service, delivered by the NHS Business Services Authority on behalf of the Department and NHS England, operates retrospectively by checking a random sample of prescriptions where an exemption has been claimed, using data held by the NHS Business Services Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions. These checks typically take approximately three months to complete. Where entitlement cannot be confirmed, a staged enquiry process allows individuals to clarify or evidence their eligibility before any penalty is applied.

Alongside this, Real Time Exemption Checking enables exemption status to be verified at the point of dispensing and is now used by approximately 95% of community pharmacies in England. Where an exemption is confirmed in real time, the prescription is automatically flagged as exempt and no retrospective penalty charge can be issued, reducing incorrect charges and follow‑up correspondence. Taken together, these arrangements are intended to ensure exemption checking is fair, proportionate, and effective in protecting NHS resources.