Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for pharmacies.

No recent discussions have been held. However, in May, as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we announced a further investment of up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies.

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector. Previously, in September 2022, we announced an additional one-off £100 million investment across this and last financial year to support the expansion of services delivered by community pharmacies.