Pharmacy: Closures

(asked on 8th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the rate of closure of community pharmacies in England.


Answered by
Neil O'Brien Portrait
Neil O'Brien
This question was answered on 20th February 2023

The following table shows the number of community pharmacies that opened and closed in England in each of the last five financial years. This includes changes of ownership which are counted both as a closure and an opening.

Financial year

Number of pharmacies opened

Number of pharmacies closed

2017/18

242

347

2018/19

220

347

2019/20

239

405

2020/21

236

451

2021/22

308

418

There remains good access to National Health Service pharmaceutical services in England, with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance to their nearest pharmacy and two times more pharmacies in the more deprived areas.

We continue to closely monitor the market. The Pharmacy Access Scheme supports access in areas where there are fewer pharmacies by financially supporting those pharmacies.

No assessment has been made of the impact of the level of funding for community pharmacies since 2019 on the availability of those pharmacies.

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