Draft Human Medicines (Amendments Relating to Hub and Spoke Dispensing etc.) Regulations 2025

Sadik Al-Hassan Excerpts

Monday 2nd June 2025 General Committees

[Sadik Al-Hassan (North Somerset) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a registered pharmacist, and previously a superintendent pharmacist of a distance-selling pharmacy. Although it is great to hear the hon. Member refer to distance-selling pharmacies in this august place, I remind him that he is representing the views of only one, admittedly large, distance-selling pharmacy, and that there is perhaps a wider range of views among distance-selling pharmacies.

[Dr Evans]

Of course, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point, with his august history as a pharmacist. My job in the Opposition is to raise these issues with Ministers for consideration. At the heart of my point is that, by choosing only one model and not offering two, we are closing down the opportunity for not only patients but businesses. If we want to invent in the NHS, that seems a bad way of doing it. It is why the last Government suggested that having a couple of models allows people to invest in, invigorate and improve our system, because otherwise, innovation will fall behind. That is at the heart of the questions I am posing to the Minister.

That leads me nicely on to my follow-up question. Does this mean that the Minister will choose not to introduce model 2? Is that likely to be in line in the future, and if so, when?

Those questions go to the principle of this. The last Government decided that there were two options to accommodate all different fields, be it dispensing GPs, community pharmacies, large-scale chemists and pharmacies or, indeed, distance-selling pharmacies. It is really important to take into account the whole environment we have in the health service. We will not divide the Committee, but we would like answers to those questions about the practicalities and policies behind the regulations.

[Sadik Al-Hassan (North Somerset) (Lab)]

I start by reminding the Committee again about my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, which includes a number of pharmacy-related entries as a registered pharmacist, including my employment by PillTime prior to being elected to the House.

With that out of the way, may I say how genuinely thrilled I am to be here this evening? Although this may seem a very niche issue to many on the Committee, as a pharmacist for nearly 20 years, many of those spent in community pharmacy and latterly in online pharmacy, I can tell Members through first-hand experience of the difference that this legislation will make to thousands of community pharmacies struggling across the country.

Although I am incredibly thankful to the Government for finally unfreezing the funding settlement after a near decade-long squeeze under the Conservative Government, there remains great financial strain upon the sector and thus a clear need for modernisation to improve efficiencies. Innovation such as hub and spoke model 1 is how we enable that modernisation and unlock the efficiencies needed to ensure community pharmacy has a future. Having worked in pharmacies for the last two decades, I know the difference that implementing hub and spoke model 1 could quickly make to my fellow pharmacists not only in enabling greater efficiencies, but in creating the much-needed additional capacity to enable the delivery of Pharmacy First services. As we look at implementing the three big shifts, pharmacy has a clear role in delivering the preventive agenda, but it can only step up and fulfil that role if we give it the funding and capacity to do so.

In late March, Minister Kinnock ensured that community pharmacy received the largest uplift in funding across the whole of the NHS. Today, the Committee can deliver hub and spoke dispensing and thus create additional capacity. Having worked with innumerable stakeholders in the pharmacy sector to get this legislation moving again after its derailment last September, I can say with confidence that there is widespread support within the community pharmacy sector for hub and spoke model 1. It will finally provide the beloved village pharmacy a level playing field with the larger chains, which have been able to utilise these technologies for decades.

The benefits of the model extend far beyond the efficiency savings, with robust evidence of greater levels of patient safety by providing access to automation in the dispensing process. I thank the Minister for acting with haste greater than many in the sector expected when the implementation of hub and spoke was indefinitely delayed last September. Although I apologise for the interminable stream of letters, conversations in corridors and questions I have since sent his way, I am afraid I still have one more point that I would appreciate clarification on.

As I understand it, the VAT status of hub and spoke services is still to be explained. Could the Minister elaborate on what exactly the VAT status will be for any fees or charges between hub and spoke? From my understanding, it is currently treated as zero-rated,and there exists some uncertainty within the sector over whether that will still apply under model 1, and if not, what elements might be subjected to VAT and at a higher rate.

[The Chair]

It is worth noting that Members should refer to colleagues by their constituency, as opposed to their name, even when they are an august Minister.