Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to implement the recommendations in the report Continuing to pay the price: the impact of prescription charges on people with long-term conditions, published by the Prescription Charges Coalition in March 2023.

No decision has been made on whether to make any changes to prescription charges for 2024/2025. Responsibility for prescribing, including the duration of prescriptions, rests with the doctor who has clinical responsibility for that aspect of a patient's care. The Department has no plans to give prescribers directives on this. It also has no plans to conduct such a review of the list of conditions that entitle a patient to apply for a medical exemption certificate.

This Government is committed to tackling cost of living pressures; and has decided that the prescription charge upper age exemption will remain at 60, meaning that it will not change to align to State Pension Age. The decision was published in June 2023, and more information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-prescription-age-frozen-at-60

Information on the prescription exemptions is promoted to professionals and patients to ensure they are aware of a patient’s entitlement. The NHS Business Services Authority also undertakes activities such as continuous social media promotion, paid social media advertising, provision of online resources for healthcare professionals to download and use in general practitioner surgeries and pharmacies, for example, posters and leaflets, media releases to news titles and promotion through healthcare bulletins.