Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure more pharmacists are (a) trained and (b) recruited.

Health is a devolved matter and Health Education England is the national leadership organisation for education, training and workforce development in the health sector in England.

The number of pharmacy training places annually is uncapped. In England, each year around 2,500 pharmacists enter training and the net increase in pharmacists practicing has increased by around 1,400 per year since 2016.

Health Education England is implementing reforms to the initial education and training of pharmacists and developing cross-sector clinical placements to enable pharmacists to play a greater clinical role across the health system. The Department has also added pharmacy students to the list of professionals eligible for the Education and Training tariff to fund clinical placements from 1 September 2022.