Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of delays in the delivery of continence and ostomy devices to patients resulting from a lack of access to Dispensing Appliance Contractor licences for small and medium-sized suppliers of continence devices.

We have made no such assessment and are not aware of reported delays in patients obtaining the appliances prescribed for them, including continence and ostomy products. There are no licensing requirements to open a private dispensing appliance contractor business. NHS England is responsible for determining whether a dispensing appliance contractor should be granted the right to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Such determinations can generally be appealed to the Family Health Services Appeal Unit of the NHS Litigation Authority.

The Department keeps the operation of the relevant NHS regulations governing the right to provide NHS pharmaceutical services under regular review with NHS England, the NHS Litigation Authority and contractors’ representatives as appropriate.