My right honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Health (Dawn Primarolo) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I regret that the Written Answer given to the honourable Member for East Worthing and Shoreham on 10 July 2008 (Official Report, col. 1800W), and the Written Answer given to the honourable Member for North Norfolk on 11 November 2008 (Official Report, col. 1044W), were incorrect. They should not have been based on monthly data on prescribing from December 2007 onwards. The NHS Business Services Authority processes for pricing prescriptions changed in mid-December 2007 and I have been advised that they cannot reliably estimate the prescribing of specific therapeutic groups for a specific age exemption category on a monthly basis from that time.

The correct reply for the Written Answer given to the honourable Member for East Worthing and Shoreham is that the information requested is not available.

The correct reply for the Written Answer given to the honourable Member for North Norfolk is that the department does not hold information on the number of people aged 65 and over who have depression or have been diagnosed with depression. However, estimates derived from the Business Services Authority's exemption category estimates and national prescribing data indicate that between October 2006 and September 2007 the proportion of prescriptions for antidepressants dispensed to those aged 60 and over was 41.5 per cent.