Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to ensure that online pharmacies that provide medicines to patients in the UK adhere to the NHS clinical guideline on puberty-suppressing hormones or the treatment of children and adolescents who have gender (a) incongruence and (b) dysphoria.

All community pharmacists, whether working on a high street or online, have a duty of care to their patients. We would expect pharmacists to take reasonable steps to ensure that all the medicines they dispense are against legally valid prescriptions, and appropriate for the patient under the authority of the prescriber. This includes both National Health Service prescriptions and private prescriptions. Registered pharmacy professionals and premises are independently regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), and guidance has been issued for those providing services at a distance, including online pharmacies.

While pharmacists are responsible for a final clinical check, ultimately the responsibility for the product prescribed rests with the prescriber. We are looking closely at what can be done to address any loopholes in prescribing practices, including work with the GPhC to define the dispensing responsibilities of pharmacists providing private prescriptions, as recommended by the Cass Report.