Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of foundation pharmacists beginning their training in 2025 had been assigned a Designated Prescribing Practitioner.

Foundation trainee pharmacists who have graduated against the 2021 standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists are required to have a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP), a healthcare professional with independent prescribing rights, such as a doctor, pharmacist, or nurse, to support the supervision and assessment of prescribing activities during their foundation year.

Under the Foundation Trainee Pharmacists National Recruitment Scheme, training providers are required to ensure that trainees have access to a DPP and to submit DPP details to NHS England once the trainee pharmacist is in post.

Of the 2,894 graduates in England who began foundation pharmacist training in 2025/26, 2,417 trained against the 2021 standards and therefore require a DPP. As of February 2026, 2,013 of these trainees, approximately 83%, had submitted details of an assigned DPP to NHS England.

By training window, 1,814 of 2,119 summer starters, or 85.6%, and 199 of 318 autumn starters, or 62.5%, had submitted DPP details. Autumn starters typically undertake prescribing later in the training year, and some may not yet have been required to submit DPP information. NHS England continues to monitor this.