Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the administrative cost to the NHS of collecting prescription charges.

The annual cost to the NHS Business Services Authority of administering National Health Service prescription charges is around £75,000 per year. This figure covers the work of NHS Prescription Services, which includes the reimbursement and remuneration of dispensing contractors in England on behalf of the Department and NHS England. It does not include the work of the NHS Business Services Authority’s ‘Loss Recovery Service’ which involves checking prescription form exemption declarations, issuing Penalty Charge Notices and managing associated customer contact.