Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the potential saving from extending free prescriptions to all asthma patients arising from reductions in accident and emergency visits and unplanned hospital admissions; and if he will make a statement.

We are unable to make such an estimate.

Data on the cost to the National Health Service of treating asthma patients in accident and emergency or unplanned hospital admissions is not collected by the Department. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCI) has published information on reasons, for example respiratory problems, for accident and emergency attendance in its Hospital Episode Statistics: Accident and Emergency Attendances in England 2012-13, but this does not identify specific conditions, such as asthma, that may have prompted an accident and emergency visit or unplanned hospital admission.

Since 1 November 2013, the Department has received 44 representations through the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit and two parliamentary questions, including the hon. Member’s own, regarding extending exemption from prescription charging to people with asthma.