Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help community pharmacies with increases in the cost of medications.

The Drug Tariff, published monthly, sets out the amount that will be paid to contractors for National Health Services in England, including both product reimbursement and service remuneration.

Where pharmacies cannot purchase products at or below the Drug Tariff NHS reimbursement price, Community Pharmacy England can request that the Department reassesses the reimbursement price. If a new reimbursement price is issued within the month, this is known as a concessionary price.

In addition, from 1 April 2024, we introduced a new retrospective top-up payment for concessionary prices, providing an additional payment to contractors when the margin survey indicates that despite a concessionary price, there was an under payment.