To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to agree the model for the smartcards required for the second phase of electronic prescribing. (167662)

In the near future. The model will conform with the commitments given in the care record guarantee, which requires access to patient-identifiable information to be controlled by use of individual user smartcards, a valid pass code, role-based access controls and a user profile linked to the organisation in which the user is working. Officials are now working with stakeholders to agree the operational detail which will underpin these requirements and this work is expected to complete shortly.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will wait until all system suppliers have received NHS Connecting for Health accreditation before he moves to the second stage of live electronic prescribing. (167785)

Programme management best practice recommends an incremental approach to implementation for large-scale information technology-enabled change programmes. This approach was adopted for the electronic prescription service (EPS) release 1 and we intend to adopt the same best-practice approach for release 2.

A number of initial implementer primary care trusts (PCTs) have been identified for deployment of release 2 of the EPS. Following achievement of technical accreditation, systems will be rolled out on a limited basis in these PCTs prior to wider accreditation and national deployment.