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 merits of turning the £370 million of advanced payment loans provided to pharmacies during the covid-19 outbreak into grants.

No assessment has been made.

The Department has reached an agreement with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee that pharmacy contractors can claim for additional COVID-19 costs incurred between 1 March 2020 and 31 March 2021 and the £370 million increased advance payments will be recovered between October 2021 to March 2022 following payment of claims for additional costs.