Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of pharmacy practices on health inequalities in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Enfield.

The Department closely monitors the market to ensure people in England have good access to National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Despite the increase in pharmacy closures seen in recent years, there are a similar number of pharmacies to ten years ago and 80% of the population live within 20 minutes’ walking distance of a pharmacy. There are relatively more pharmacies in areas of higher deprivation than in areas with lower levels of deprivation within Enfield North constituency and the London Borough of Enfield according to the latest, December 2022, data.