Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Medical Exemption Certificates for prescription charges, how many (a) enquiry letters were issued to patients who claimed they held a valid medical exemption certificate and (b) Penalty Charge Notices were issued to these patients in each of the last five years.

The table below shows the total number of Enquiry letters and total number of penalty charge notices (PCNs) that have been issued in regard to a Medical Exemption Certificate. More than one PCN or Enquiry letter may have been issued to an individual patient.

Please note, prior to February 2020 there were no Enquiry letters issued as this was not part of the exemption enquiry process at that point.