The petition of residents of the United Kingdom,
Declares that the facilities on the Boothferry Estate in Hull are woefully inadequate and need to be improved, notes that there is only a single pharmacy to support a population of 3028 and further notes that Hull City Council has lost one pound in every three from its budget since this government came to office in 2010.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to release more money to Hull City Council to improve local facilities on the Boothferry Estate.
And the petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Emma Hardy , Official Report, 8 April 2019; Vol. 658, c. 146 .]
[P002445]
Observations from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rishi Sunak):
Local authorities are democratically elected organisations and so are independent from central Government. They are responsible for managing their financial budgets and for making spending decisions in line with their priority needs. The issue of local authority spending priorities is ultimately a matter for local discretion.
All of Government have had to make to make savings to help deliver our deficit reduction programme. The Government’s approach is working and we are seeing positive signs for the future, but we know demand on services is increasing. As announced in the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2019-20, there is a cash-terms increase of 2.8% funding for English councils; rising from £45.1 billion in 2018-19 to £46.4 billion in 2019-20. Hull City Council has £214.6 million available for 2019-20, an increase of 2.4% on 2018-19.
The overall level of future funding available for local government will be a matter for the spending review. This is our opportunity to look at Local Government spending in the round; and I want to ensure that councils have the resources and flexibilities to deliver efficiently and effectively.
Community Pharmacies are private businesses and make their own business decisions on whether or not to open. Market entry is governed by legislation that requires local authorities to carry out a pharmaceutical needs assessment and the local NHS England team to have consideration of that assessment when considering applications to join the pharmaceutical list to provide NHS services in an area.
The Government protect patient access to pharmaceutical services through the Pharmacy Access Scheme which tops up pharmacy incomes for those pharmacies that are 1 mile from their next nearest pharmacy and dispensed less than 109,012 prescriptions in 2015/16, the year when eligibility was determined. The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment for Hull states that the provision of pharmaceutical services in the Boothferry Ward is considered adequate by the local authority.