Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the NHS Property Service on the impact of increasing rents on community pharmacies.

The Department has held discussions with NHS Property Services regarding specific instances where rent reviews are due at pharmacies located in health centres it operates and owns. When undertaking such rent reviews, NHS Property Services uses a standard valuation approach for calculating the proposed level of rental charges to ensure it recovers the costs of operating these premises, which are then negotiated and agreed with the pharmacies concerned on a case-by-case basis. The Department is working with NHS Property Services to ensure that the application of this approach is fair and transparent.