Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the closure of community pharmacies.

There remains good access to community pharmacies with 88% of the population able to access their local pharmacy on foot within 20 minutes. To help maintain access to face-to-face National Health Service pharmaceutical services in areas with fewer pharmacies the Government introduced a Pharmacy Access Scheme (PHAS), under which pharmacies eligible for the scheme receive a ‘top-up’ payment, thus requiring them to make smaller efficiency savings than other non-PhAS pharmacies.