Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the cost of medicines bought by community pharmacies in the context of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework and the retained medicine margin in each year since 2014.

The retained medicine margin as allowed under the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) funding for years 2014/15 to 2021/22 was £800 million per year; for 2022/23 and 2023/24 it is £850 million.

We undertake what is known as the medicine margin survey which samples independent pharmacy contractors’ invoices to compare what they paid for products with what they were reimbursed by the National Health Service. This data is used to calculate the average amount of medicine margin retained by pharmacy contractors during the year. Where the survey shows that there has been an over or under delivery of medicine margin allowed as part of CPCF funding, adjustments are made to Category M reimbursement prices with the aim of balancing the margin to that allowed within 12 months.