Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is the Government taking to ensure that pharmacies are sustainably funded for the increasing costs and staff time involved in sourcing medicines during supply shortages.

The Government has recently increased funding for the community pharmacy sector by £340 million in 2026/27, a 10% cash uplift that supports pharmacies across England and patients' access to medicines. This builds on the 19% uplift to the community pharmacy budget across 2024/25 and 2025/26. The Government recognises the financial and operational pressures facing community pharmacy, including those associated with medicines supply issues, and remains committed to working with the sector to support a sustainable pharmacy network.

Access to community pharmacy remains strong, with over 80% of the population living within one mile of a pharmacy, alongside more than 400 distance-selling pharmacies which provide medicines directly to patients' homes. Local authorities' Health and Wellbeing Boards regularly assess pharmaceutical need through Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments, which inform integrated care board commissioning decisions and help ensure patients continue to have access to pharmaceutical services where they are needed.

Medicines supply issues are primarily driven by global manufacturing, commercial, and distribution factors. While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a range of established tools to manage them and mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product, expediting regulatory procedures, sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals including pharmacists, so they can advise and support their patients.