Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the average cost to the public purse of dispensing a medicine through an (a) internet and (b) high street pharmacy.

We have made no such assessment. Pharmacies on the pharmaceutical list, and thus eligible to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services, are required to provide the same essential services and receive the same payment rates based on activity, whether they are internet or high street pharmacies.