Pharmacy Closures

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are constantly in discussion with Community Pharmacy England and its organisations about how we develop their role. I am very enthusiastic, as many noble Lords are, about the role that they can play. I was looking at statistics between April 2025 and February 2026 about the millions of clinical services, not just vaccinations, that have been delivered. For example, there have been over 4.7 million flu vaccinations. There is scope for discussion on how we can expand the vaccination programme, but the service provided by community pharmacies is to be credited.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, has the department undertaken any analysis of the characteristics of pharmacies that are most of risk of closure to understand whether geography, deprivation, the ownership model or dispensing volume are the principal drivers? Does she agree that having this data might help the department to target some of the uplift more effectively and prevent closures? Can she update the House on whether the department carries out that analysis?