To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the Tamworth constituency have received prescriptions without charge since such exemptions were introduced. (291466)

This information is not held centrally.

The Department does not know the number of people for whom prescription items are dispensed because the information collected is based on the number of prescription items dispensed in the community. These data are not available at a constituency level. The latest data for England (for 2008) show that around 93 per cent. of prescription items were not charged for at the point of dispensing, either because the patient was not liable to pay a charge, or because they held a valid prescription pre-payment certificate.