To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total annual cost of treatment for asthma and eczema, respectively (a) through the family practitioner service and (b) through the hospital service.

The estimated annual cost of treating asthma is £44 million through hospital in-patient treatment and £200 million through the family health services. It is not possible to estimate the hospital out-patient cost of asthma from information collected centrally. Eczema covers a range of conditions not separately identified in the information collected, and therefore information on costing is not available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total number of national health service patients being treated for asthma and eczema, respectively; and what is the number of new cases in each category every year.

This information is not held centrally.