Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will review the current appeals process for NHS prescription penalty charges to ensure that reasonable discretion is applied in cases of (a) genuine mistake and (b) hardship.

There are no plans to review the appeals process. The Real Time Exemption Checking Service in England (RTEC) helps pharmacy teams confirm whether a patient holds a valid exemption from National Health Service prescription charges quickly while in the pharmacy. The RTEC provides assurance to patients and pharmacy teams that exemptions are being claimed correctly.

It is also a patient’s responsibility to be aware of their entitlement and to ensure they take appropriate steps to legitimately enable them to claim exemption from charges. Further information on this is available on the NHS.UK website and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) website, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/prescriptions/check-if-you-can-get-free-prescriptions/

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-help-health-costs

Patients can also use the NHS BSA eligibility checker, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/dont-get-caught-out-penalty-charges/check-you-tick

Where a patient is unsure if they are entitled to exemption from NHS prescription charges, they should pay the applicable charges and request an FP57 receipt and refund form at the point at which they pay the prescription charge. They can then claim a refund from the pharmacy within three months of paying the prescription charge once they have evidence of exemption.