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 assessment of the implication for its policies of Lloyds Pharmacy plan to sell pharmacy branches and contracts they hold across the UK.

No specific assessment has been made. There are mechanisms in place through Local Authority Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments to identify where there is a need for additional pharmaceutical services in an area.

The Department continues to closely monitor patient access to NHS pharmaceutical services across England. Access remains good with 80 percent of people living within 20 minutes walking of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the more deprived areas.