Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued guidance on the adequate travel distance for accessing out of hours pharmacy provision.

Local authorities are required to undertake a pharmaceutical needs assessment every three years, to assess whether their population is adequately served, and keep these assessments under review. These assessments inform integrated care boards (ICBs) when reviewing applications from prospective National Health Service pharmacy contactors. In addition, ICBs have powers to direct and fund pharmacies to open for longer than their core contractual hours if there is an unmet need. Patients can also choose to access medicines and pharmacy services through any of the over 400 NHS online pharmacies that are contractually required to deliver prescription medicines free of charge to patients.