Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to assess the impact of the process of obtaining Dispensing Appliance Contractor licences on small and medium-sized businesses offering continence products.

There are no licensing requirements to open a private dispensing appliance contractor business. NHS England is responsible for determining whether a dispensing appliance contractor should be granted the right to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Such determinations can generally be appealed to the Family Health Services Appeal Unit of the NHS Litigation Authority.

The Department keeps the operation of the relevant NHS regulations governing the right to provide NHS pharmaceutical services under regular review with NHS England, the NHS Litigation Authority and contractors’ representatives, as appropriate. We are not aware of any significant issues regarding the impact of these arrangements on small and medium-sized businesses offering continence products nor on the adoption of innovation in the NHS.