Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evidence his Department holds on the prevalence of off-label prescribing among (a) specialist clinicians, (b) GPs, (c) nurses and (d) other medical professionals.

The Department does not hold the information requested. The Health and Social care Information Centre has published information on prescribing data by British National Formulary chapter.

Where clinically appropriate, off-label prescribing is supported in guidance given to prescribers by both the General Medical Council and by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Prescribing in this way is part and parcel of normal every day clinical practice. It is very common in paediatric and palliative care.

Discussions relating to the Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill are considering how a potential database covering off-label use could be constituted.