Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the duration of medical exemption certificates for people with (a) type 1 diabetes and (b) other lifelong conditions.

Medical exemption certificates allow people with certain medical conditions to obtain their NHS prescriptions without charge, although not all the qualifying conditions which provide exemption are necessarily life-long.

The five-year duration ensures that a patient’s continued eligibility is confirmed by a health professional, whilst minimising the burden on the patient and healthcare staff and creating a check point at least once every five years on the accuracy of patient details for verification of claims for exemption and for fraud detection purposes.

Therefore, there are currently no plans to review the duration of medical exemption certificates for people with type 1 diabetes and other lifelong conditions.