Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee's counter-proposal to the Government's plans for the future of community pharmacy, published in April 2016.

We have been consulting on proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond.

Throughout the consultation period we have remained open to new ideas and suggestions both from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and from other stakeholders.

We have welcomed the publication of PSNC’s counter proposal on 26 April 2016. This has enabled these ideas to be discussed with other key stakeholders.

The public phase of the consultation ended on 24 May 2016. The Department, supported by NHS England, will continue to discuss the proposals in confidence, with the PSNC and hold a final round of confidential discussions with other key pharmacy stakeholders.