Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government who is responsible for ensuring that pharmacies in women's prisons are stocked correctly and take into account prisoners' illnesses; and how many qualified clinicians are on duty each day.

NHS England contracts prison healthcare and pharmacy services directly via its Health and Justice regional commissioning teams, which also assure the contracts.

Contracted providers are expected to enable access to a prescription dispensing pharmacy service, which can be on-site or via an externally contracted pharmacy, that meets the same standards as those provided by community pharmacies.

The provider is responsible for ensuring the service meets the standards set out in the National Health Service’s health and justice national prison primary care service specification. These include the expectation that dispensed medicines are provided for supply to the patient within specific timeframes, with the pharmacy deciding which medicines to keep in stock based on the usual items prescribed.

The contracted provider will decide how many qualified clinicians need to be on duty each day based on the health needs and size of the prison population, and the admission, release, and transfer rates at the prison. The provider provides the regional commissioning team with information about the workforce and service delivery arrangements as part of the contract monitoring information and service assurance.