To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure his Department has incurred on the NHS business authority administering pre-paid prescription certificates in the last 12 months; and what estimate he has made of the income forgone in exemptions to prescription charges in the same period. (291575)

The administering of pre-payment prescription certificates (PPCs), medical exemption certificates and maternity exemption certificates is a single process. It is not possible to provide a cost for administering PPCs.

The total costs for England, including overheads, for the 12-month period August 2008 to July 2009 for administering PPCs, medical exemption certificates and maternity exemption certificates for residents of England was £4.418 million.

The estimate of income forgone in England from exemptions to prescription charges in the most recent 12 months for which data are available (August 2008 to July 2009) is £5.6 billion. The estimate assumes no deterrent effect, and no substitution of charged prescriptions with Over the Counter Medicines. This is likely to mean that this is an over-estimate.