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 effect on pharmacy services in (a) the North East, (b) County Durham and (c) Easington constituency of the Government's proposed changes to the budget for community pharmacy.

The proposals on which we have consulted will apply throughout 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.

In addition we are providing a further £112 million to ensure that an additional 1,500 pharmacists join general practices by 2020. This initiative includes coverage of the three regions referenced.