Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any GPs in England (1) prescribe the oral contraceptive pill for only one month at a time, and (2) require women and girls to make GP appointments every month before receiving a repeat prescription of the pill; and if so, how many and why.

The current general practitioner (GP) contract allows practices to opt out of providing contraceptive services to their registered patients. Where they do so, NHS England has responsibility for ensuring patients of those practices have access to such services.

All prescribed contraception in England is provided free of charge to the user. Therefore, 100% of girls under 18 and women who are prescribed contraception in England will receive this for free. Those GP practices who have not opted out of providing contraceptive services and sexual health clinics may also distribute free contraception.

Information on the frequency with which the oral contraceptive pill is prescribed, and whether GP appointments are required is not collected centrally. Such decisions are a clinical decision of the GP concerned taking into account the individual circumstances of each patient.