Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to enable all registered pharmacists to become independent prescribers.

Following reforms to pharmacist initial education and training, from 2026 all newly qualified pharmacists will be independent prescribers on the day of registration.

Furthermore, NHS England is investing £15.9 million on pharmacy professional career development. This has helped fund 3,000 training places in 2023/24 for independent prescribing for post-registration pharmacists working in the community, general practice and secondary care. NHS England and the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education also offer a range of support to upskill the current workforce with clinical examination skills, and are training 1,000 designated prescribing practitioners and education supervisors to support the training of pharmacist independent prescribers.