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 increase the number of pharmacies in (a) West Yorkshire and (b) England offering lateral flow tests.

On 29 March, pharmacies in England were invited to offer Pharmacy Collect as an opt in service and from 5 April as part of the universal offer for rapid testing for all. To increase the number of pharmacies offering lateral flow tests we have directed NHS England and NHS Improvement to commission the community pharmacy COVID-19 lateral flow device distribution service. Over 90% of pharmacies across England registered to offer lateral flow tests within 10 days of the Pharmacy Collect service launch and this continues to increase.

NHS Test and Trace continues to work closely with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee who work directly with Local Pharmaceutical Committees across the country, including West Yorkshire.