Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the families of pharmacists and their staff who have died from COVID-19 will be eligible for the death in service payments announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

The Government is in the process of setting up a life assurance scheme for frontline health and social care staff who contract COVID-19 during the course of their work.

The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff die as a result of COVID-19 and had been recently working in frontline roles and locations where personal care is provided to individuals who have recently contracted COVID-19. These arrangements cover pharmacy teams working in hospitals and general practitioner practices.

The scheme permits the Secretary of State to consider exceptional cases which may not fall within the eligibility criteria, such as cases from community pharmacy.