Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her Department's policies of trends in the level of demand for pharmacy services during winter 2023-24.

Every year in winter, demand for services in the National Health Service increases and community pharmacies are playing a growing role in supporting the NHS to meet this demand. Pharmacies in England already deliver a wider range of NHS services including advice on newly prescribed medicines for long-term conditions, blood pressure checks, oral contraception consultations and minor illness referrals from general practitioners (GPs), NHS 111 and urgent and emergency care. We are investing in community pharmacy to enable them to support more patients in winter by launching Pharmacy First this year. Pharmacy First will enable community pharmacists to manage seven common conditions including the supply of prescription-only medicines without referring them on to a GP for a prescription