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Written question asked by Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party) on Tuesday, 20 May 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 22 May 2025. It was answered by Karin Smyth (Labour) on Monday, 2 June 2025 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Montelukast: Children

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children aged between five to 11 years of age have been prescribed Montelukast in each of the last five years.

Answer

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds patient identifiable data relating to drugs prescribed in England and dispensed within a community setting, and which are submitted to the NHSBSA for processing.

The following table shows the total number of identified children in the requested age bands that were prescribed Montelukast for the financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025:

Financial year

Age band one to five years old

Age band five to 11 years old

2020/2021

31,448

57,057

2021/2022

44,675

62,587

2022/2023

47,301

69,837

2023/2024

41,346

74,859

2024/2025

30,849

70,903

Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

It should be noted that the age ranges requested overlap for children aged five years old, so the given age bands should not be added or combined.

Care should be taken when interpreting the patient counts, as some patients could appear in the results for multiple time periods. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years. Therefore, the patient numbers should not be combined and reported at any other levels other than as provided in the dataset.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
53503
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Children Montelukast
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk