Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the causes of community pharmacy closures since 2016; and what steps he is taking to support community pharmacies in (a) Waveney Valley constituency and (b) England

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system. Previous plans did not go far enough and we are looking at what changes we can introduce. The Government has set out its ambition to expand the role of pharmacies and to better utilise the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists.

Departmental officials are working at pace to conclude the consultation on the community pharmacy contractual framework arrangements for 2024/25 as quickly as possible. We are unable to provide further details until the consultation with the Community Pharmacy England is concluded. The outcome will be published and communicated to all contractors at that time.

Pharmacies are private business and decisions to close are made for a range of reasons, as in any other provider market. The Department continues to monitor patient access to all pharmaceutical services closely. Despite pharmacy closures in recent years, access remains good and four in five people in England live within in a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy, and this proportion is higher in the most deprived areas. Patients can also choose to access medicines and services through any of the nearly 400 National Health Service online pharmacies that are contractually required to deliver medicines free of charge to patients.