Eyesight: Testing

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners aged 60 and over have claimed a free eye test in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each year since the scheme's inception. (186672)

I have been asked to reply.

Information broken down by patient eligibility type is currently only available at country level, and not strategic health authority (SHA), primary care trust (PCT) or constituency level. The Information Centre for health and social care (IC) only has information for England and Wales, not the United Kingdom. The information is shown in the following table.

Information on persons aged 60 and over receiving sight tests paid for by the national health service will be available in the publication “General Ophthalmic Services: Activity Statistics for England and Wales, April to September 2007”. Information will be available at PCT and SHA level. This report will be published by the IC in late March 2008.

Patients aged 60 and over became eligible for free NHS sight tests from 1 April 1999.

*Total number of NHS sight tests paid for by the NHS in England and Wales for persons aged 60 and over in the specified years ending 31 March*
	England	Wales
2000	3,301,412	244,840
2001	3,753,315	242,426
2002	4,012,946	255,251
2003	4,135,712	273,660
2004	4,308,889	279,228
2005	4,303,128	295,752
2006	4,450,007	312,452
2007	4,518,672	287,446
Note: All figures are the total number of sight tests and do not take into account individuals who may have had more than one sight test in the same area within the same time period. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care.

Volume 472: debated on Wednesday 27 February 2008