Question reference: S6W-17102
- Date lodged: 25 April 2023
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Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 22 May 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much in real terms, based on current prices, its policy on (a) free prescriptions, (b) concessionary travel and (c) free personal and nursing care has cost in each year since its introduction, also broken down by the average annual real terms spending for a recipient of each scheme.
Answer
a) Prescription charges were removed in Scotland in financial year 2011-12, with £57m being baselined into territorial board budgets. The prescription charge for a single item in 2007-08 was £6.85. In England, where prescription charges were not abolished, the single item charge increased to £9.65 in April 2023.
b) In 2022-23 the nominal price payments for the Older & Disabled Persons’ scheme was £158.4m, and the Young Persons’ Scheme was £109.1m. These figures may be subject to future revision as operators have up to 12 months to make a claim for reimbursement in line with scheme legislation. Statistics on concessionary travel can be found in Chapter 2 via the following link: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-transport-statistics-2022/
c) Information on expenditure related to Free Personal and Nursing Care is published annually, and is publicly available via the following link: Health and social care analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .