Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Maguire and James Murray

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

T3. The owner of Horton pharmacy in Epsom has raised concerns about the financial burden that increased employer national insurance contributions will place on community pharmacies. Pharmacies provide frontline care, and without support, their viability and the accessible healthcare that they offer could be at risk. That will add pressure to an already strained national health service. Will the Chancellor reconsider and exempt community pharmacies from the increase?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

Primary care providers have yearly negotiations with the Department on what services they provide and what money they are entitled to. More broadly, the reason why we are, in the Budget, taking difficult decisions about national insurance and other matters is precisely to fund the NHS, so that we have the health service that our country needs and deserves.