Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of innovation in pharmacy services to support delivery of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, community pharmacies will play an important role in the Neighbourhood Health Service, working closely with other primary care providers to deliver more joined-up, accessible, and innovative care closer to patients’ homes. Innovation in pharmacy services is central to this, including through our commitment to make prescribing part of community pharmacy services in England.
Community pharmacies are already one of the most accessible parts of the health service, and this strong local presence means they are well placed to improve patient access and continuity of care. They already support people with long term conditions and complex needs through services such as the New Medicine Service, which helps patients who are prescribed a new medicine for specific long-term conditions, including asthma and hypertension, to use their medicines effectively and improve adherence.
We are committed to looking at how community pharmacy can continue to support improved access for patients and the future development of clinical services as part of our formal consultations with Community Pharmacy England.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to enable community pharmacy to improve patient access and continuity of care, particularly for people with long term conditions and complex needs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, community pharmacies will play an important role in the Neighbourhood Health Service, working closely with other primary care providers to deliver more joined-up, accessible, and innovative care closer to patients’ homes. Innovation in pharmacy services is central to this, including through our commitment to make prescribing part of community pharmacy services in England.
Community pharmacies are already one of the most accessible parts of the health service, and this strong local presence means they are well placed to improve patient access and continuity of care. They already support people with long term conditions and complex needs through services such as the New Medicine Service, which helps patients who are prescribed a new medicine for specific long-term conditions, including asthma and hypertension, to use their medicines effectively and improve adherence.
We are committed to looking at how community pharmacy can continue to support improved access for patients and the future development of clinical services as part of our formal consultations with Community Pharmacy England.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the adoption of new (a) treatments and (b) innovations for respiratory conditions across NHS services in Surrey.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving respiratory care for both adults and children remains a priority, and this forms part of the Surrey and Sussex Integrated Care Boards’s CORE20Plus5 ambitions for both adults, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and children and young people, for asthma.
Recent areas of focus have included implementing new asthma prescribing guidelines and providing resources to primary care colleagues to support regular reviews in relation to prescribing, which supports reducing admissions and the delivery of respiratory care.
Work is also underway, as part of developing the Surrey Joint Strategic Needs Analysis, in relation to priority populations and key neighbourhoods, including people living in close proximity to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, as well as the M25, where there tends to be higher levels of respiratory illness.
In addition, considering wider risk factors, the integrated care board is working closely with public health to ensure smoking cessation support is available to everyone in Surrey, including those with respiratory conditions. Other related initiatives include joint work with partners to improve aspects of asthma care and recently launching the lung cancer screening programme in Surrey to support earlier detection.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to support the adoption of the a) Asthma Control Test and b) COPD Assessment Test as part of annual reviews for respiratory patients in primary care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Asthma Control Test and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Assessment Test are accessible online for patients to use and the results can be taken to a general practice to help inform an annual assessment or other general practice appointment associated with these conditions.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the proportion of patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving annual reviews.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
Annual reviews, including reviews of medication, play a key role in the ongoing management of people with respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, as part of its guidance for the diagnosis and management of asthma and COPD
The majority of patients with COPD and asthma are managed by general practitioners and members of the primary care team. The provision of annual reviews is incentivised in primary care through the Quality and Outcomes Framework. There are indicators for annual reviews for both COPD, namely COPD010,and asthma, namely AST007, within this framework.
Further details on these indicators are available in the QOF guidance at the following link:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) trends in the level of variation in access to NICE-recommended biologic medicines for severe asthma.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
No assessment has been made. NHS England is working with the health innovation networks and has formed the Respiratory Transformation Partnership. Focusing on improving the outcomes of people living with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), this programme seeks to find scalable ways to decrease premature mortality and bed occupancy from respiratory diseases. Initiatives will seek to improve disease recognition, optimise delivery of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved approaches at neighbourhood level, and uptake of existing and emerging biologic therapies.
The current NHS England severe asthma service specification is being revised by the Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group. The current service specification is available at the following link:
The revised specification will support the management of patients who require further investigation and treatments including biological medicines. The specification will also be updated to reference the most recent clinical guidelines such as the British Thoracic Society, NICE, and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network asthma guideline covering diagnosing, monitoring, and managing asthma in adults, young people, and children, and which is expected to improve outcomes for people with asthma and identify early those who require further investigation and treatments including biologic medicines. This guideline is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng245
Asked by: Dan Aldridge (Labour - Weston-super-Mare)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what targeted support his Department is providing people with asthma during the winter period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has provided £2.61 million of funding in 2025/26 to support people with respiratory conditions this winter, including improving access to diagnostic tests such as spirometry to support early and accurate diagnosis of asthma.
The funding builds on the work of NHS England to improve asthma outcomes, including the publication of commissioning standards for spirometry and the inclusion of Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators to support asthma diagnosis and management. These measures will support asthma patients to manage their condition throughout the year, including during the winter period.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Independent - Gorton and Denton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help (a) increase the proportion of people with asthma that receive annual check-ups and (b) decrease preventable deaths from asthma.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The majority of patients with asthma are managed by general practitioners and members of the primary care team, with onward referrals to secondary care where required. The provision of annual reviews is incentivised in primary care through the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). Further details on the QOF asthma indicators are available in the QOF guidance, a copy of which is attached.
In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the British Thoracic Society, and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network published the guideline Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management, in November 2024, which covers diagnosing, monitoring, and managing asthma in adults, young people, and children. NHS England has also been working jointly with the Health Innovation Networks to form a national respiratory partnership to improve asthma outcomes, including through implementation of this asthma guideline.
Asked by: Ayoub Khan (Independent - Birmingham Perry Barr)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July to Question 68960 on Asthma: Medical Equipment, how many NHS-prescribed (a) dry powder inhalers and (b) pressurised metered dose inhalers were purchased from each of the relevant Market Authorisation Holders in the latest three periods for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) produces official statistics on Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) which show the total volume and cost for drugs, dressings, appliances, and medical devices that have been dispensed in the community in England. These statistics cannot be specifically linked to the marketing authorisations, but they can be linked to pharmaceutical product suppliers using the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices. Suppliers may be distributors, manufacturers, or wholesalers. The following table shows the quantity supplied for National Health Service prescriptions of dry powder inhalers of salbutamol and terbutaline by supplier, for April, May, and June 2025:
Chemical substance | Supplier | Pharmaceutical presentation | April 2025 | May 2025 | June 2025 |
Salbutamol | Orion Pharma (UK) Ltd | Easyhaler Salbutamol sulfate 100micrograms/dose dry powder inhaler | 80,700 | 83,203 | 79,832 |
Easyhaler Salbutamol sulfate 200micrograms/dose dry powder inhaler | 7,248 | 7,287 | 6,961 | ||
GlaxoSmithKline UK Ltd | Ventolin 200micrograms/dose Accuhaler | 36,039 | 34,644 | 36,302 | |
Viatris UK Healthcare Ltd | Salbulin Novolizer 100micrograms/dose inhalation powder | 179 | 152 | 187 | |
Salbulin Novolizer 100micrograms/dose inhalation powder refill | 78 | 56 | 48 | ||
Terbutaline sulphate | AstraZeneca UK Ltd | Bricanyl 500micrograms/dose Turbohaler | 29,818 | 29,938 | 28,678 |
Source: NHS BSA Open Data Portal, PCA data, with further information available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/.
In addition, the following table shows the quantity supplied for NHS prescriptions of pressurised metered dose inhalers of salbutamol by supplier for April to June 2025:
Chemical Substance | Supplier | Pharmaceutical presentation | April 2025 | May 2025 | June 2025 |
Salbutamol | Teva UK Ltd | Salamol 100micrograms/dose inhaler CFC free (Teva) | 699,675 | 710,174 | 672,394 |
Salamol 100micrograms/dose Easi-Breathe inhaler | 61,653 | 69,182 | 63,136 | ||
Airomir 100micrograms/dose inhaler | 4,467 | 3,435 | 1,899 | ||
Airomir 100micrograms/dose Autohaler | 3,904 | 2,949 | 2,423 | ||
Salbutamol 100micrograms/dose inhaler CFC free | 242 | 95 | 34 | ||
Generic supplier | Salbutamol 100micrograms/dose inhaler CFC free | 487,491 | 485,820 | 458,946 | |
GlaxoSmithKline UK Ltd | Ventolin 100micrograms/dose Evohaler | 301,060 | 305,766 | 290,367 | |
A A H Pharmaceuticals Ltd | Salbutamol 100micrograms/dose inhaler | 101 | 56 | 6 | |
3M Health Care Ltd | Aerolin 100micrograms/dose Autohaler | 2 | 1 |
|
Source: NHS BSA Open Data Portal, PCA data, with further information available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/
‘Salbutamol 100micrograms/dose inhaler CFC free’ is reimbursed generically according to the Drug Tariff Part VIIIA, so it is not necessary for pharmacy reimbursement claims to state the supplier. In cases where the NHS BSA has no supplier information, these items are classified as ‘Generic Supplier’.
As set out in the answer I gave on 23 July 2025 to Question 68960, we do not hold prescribing data that specifically differentiates inhalers based on whether they have dosage counters. We note, however, that most dry powder inhalers have dosage counters, whilst most pressurised inhalers do not. In June 2025 the proportion of salbutamol and terbutaline sulphate inhalers that were dry powder inhalers was 9.3%.
Asked by: Ayoub Khan (Independent - Birmingham Perry Barr)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2025 to Question 62448 on Asthma: Medical Equipment, how many patients with asthma receive their inhaler prescriptions (a) free of charge and (b) at the current prescription charge in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the NHS Business Services Authority collects data for the number of specific prescription items dispensed in England, it is not possible to determine the indication for which a medicine was prescribed. Given inhalers can be used to treat medical conditions other than asthma, for example chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, we are unable to determine how many were dispensed for the treatment of asthma.
From February to April 2025, dispensers in the community in England issued inhalation products to approximately 3,751,000 unique patients who did not pay a charge at the point of dispensing. This total includes items where no charge was collected due to a patient holding a valid pre-payment certificate.
Furthermore, from February to April 2025, dispensers in the community in England issued inhalation products to approximately 492,000 unique patients who did pay a charge at the point of dispensing. Figures are approximate, as a unique patient cannot always be identified from a paper prescription.