Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of (a) the extent of additional work required from a GP or clinician when prescribing an off-label or unlicensed indication of a drug, (b) the effect of such prescribing on GPs' and clinicians' working hours and (c) whether there is sufficient human resource within the NHS to allow such prescribing to take place routinely.

In making prescribing decisions, a clinician should first and foremost consider a patient’s individual clinical needs and choose the medicine best fitted to meet those needs, whether the medicine is licensed, off-label or unlicensed. Prescribing off-label is part and parcel of normal clinical practice and is therefore being delivered within National Health Service resources now.