Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of pharmacies which will potentially be affected financially by planned changes to funding in the Bradford District Care Trust area.

The proposals on which we are consulting will apply to all community pharmacies providing National Health Service pharmaceutical services in England.

Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. The Government believes these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.

We have been consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.