We understand having coeliac disease is not a choice, and that under its constitution, the NHS should be providing a comprehensive services available to all and that access is based on clinical need and not an ability to pay. This is what we are arguing for.

However, the government is insisting that savings must be made within the NHS. As the government has made a decision that gluten free food is an area where efficiencies can be found, we need to present strong arguments that show patient need and how prescribing can be more efficient. We have done this by presenting options for improved NHS procurement and management.

If we fail to convince the government of the validity of our arguments, we must be prepared to say that there are some very vulnerable patients whose health will be at risk if clinical discretion is not allowed.  

We have created lists based on popular products searches, such as breakfast cereals, pizzas and flours.

Yes. Defra (Department for Food and Rural Affairs) held a public consultation on the Food Information Regulations at the beginning of 2013. Coeliac UK responded to the consultation and highlighted that although introduced as voluntary information, allergy advice boxes provide a useful way of highlighting the presence of deliberate allergenic ingredients in pre-packed food. Consumers are used to referring to these as a quick guide and for many people the allergy box is seen as an effective and instant way of indicating presence or absence of gluten in foods, rather than reading through the ingredient list.

We have worked with the Food Standards Agency and other parties to try and get a standardised approach for allergy boxes used by all the retailers and major manufacturers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has produced guidance for all its Members in an effort to get a consistent way of labelling. This will hopefully mean that most labels will look the same and allow consumers to get used to the changes.

Read the guidance.

You can access ‘Gluten-free foods: a revised prescribing guideline’ on the Coeliac UK website. This guideline provides recommendations on prescribing reasonable quantities of gluten-free staple foods for people diagnosed with coeliac disease.

This section gives you all the information you need to help understand gluten free labelling, including our new handy video.

No, but you are welcome to set your own target. No matter how much or how little you raise or donate, every contribution is appreciated.

It has been brought to our attention that a few people are experiencing the app crashing on their Android phones, which run the Android operating system versions 2.3.3 - 2.3.7. This may be due to the operating system on these phones not being updated, so if you are experiencing this, we’d recommend updating your operating system.

The way that people use the Food and Drink Guide varies between individuals. We list the supermarket own brands separately as many members only go to one or two supermarkets and so we list supermarket own brand products together.

Introducing a pharmacy led supply scheme allows better stock control of gluten-free foods for pharmacists as well as providing a more flexible service to improve the patient experience.

Pharmacists and GP dispensaries are paid a service charge at six monthly intervals for each patient who accesses the service. When the scheme in Northamptonshire was introduced it was run as an Enhanced Service with funding for this element of the contract coming from Primary Care Contracting budgets.