Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of taking legislative steps to allow pharmacists to make safe substitutions when a prescribed medicine is unavailable.

We consulted on proposals to enable pharmacist flexibilities when dispensing medicines and have considered the responses to this consultation, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/enabling-pharmacist-flexibilities-when-dispensing-medicines/enabling-pharmacist-flexibilities-when-dispensing-medicines#how-to-respond

We will issue a formal consultation response in the coming months.