To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the spending per head on GP-prescribed (a) tranquillisers and (b) anti-depressants was in (i) each primary care trust area and (ii) England in each of the last three years. (306578)

The average net ingredient cost per head of population, for each primary care trust in England, for the dispensing of prescriptions written by general practitioners for tranquillisers and anti-depressants, has been placed in the Library.

Tranquillisers are defined as all those items appearing in paragraph 4.1.2 Anxiolytics of the British National Formulary (BNF) and anti-depressants defined as those items appearing in section 4.3 Antidepressant drugs of the BNF.

In October 2006, there was a re-organisation of primary care trusts (PCTs) and the 303 PCTs became 152 with some being abolished, others continuing and new ones being created. It is therefore not possible to give figures per head for each PCT in 2006-07. They have therefore not been included in the response.