Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help community pharmacies manage costs and workforce shortages.

We absolutely recognise pressures in pharmacy – that’s why:

• We just committed £645 million, on top of the £100m investment we made last September, so that community pharmacy has the resource it needs
• We have 82% more pharmacists than in 2010, and the Long Term Workforce Plan sets out our plan to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031
• We are also undertaking a series of reforms to enable the workforce to do more and use their skills fully.