National Health Service Help with Health Costs (NHS HwHC) do not hold pre-payment certificate information at primary care trust or county level. The information is available at national level for England which has been set out in the following table.
NHS HwHC also do not hold records for the number of pre-payment certificates sold since 1997. Details of certificates issued are retained for seven years. The information available covers April 2003 to February 2010.
Duration of certificates issued Financial year Three-month Four-month 12-month Total 2003-04 — 572,863 461,614 1,034,477 2004-05 — 491,576 517,882 1,009,458 2005-06 — 638,413 524,232 1,162,645 2006-07 — 650,782 520,449 1,171,231 2007-08 474,570 176,503 593,507 1,244,580 2008-09 730,592 — 652,870 1,383,462 2009-10 648,518 — 588,820 1,237,338 Total 1,853,680 2,530,137 3,859,374 8,243,191 Notes: 1. 2009-10 only covers 11 months as March 2010 data are not yet available. 2. Between 2004 and June 2007, pre-payment certificates were available to cover a period of four months or 12 months. Since 1 July 2007 the four-month pre-payment certificate has been replaced with certificates covering three months. 3. The summary information used is available only by financial year. Source: Summary of information provided from NHS HwHC prescription pre-payment certificate database.