Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing the City of Portsmouth to become a pilot area for pharmacists to be allowed to issue prescriptions to patients, in the context of trends in the level of demand for NHS GP services in the city.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board is responsible for the commissioning of pharmaceutical services and may introduce a prescribing service in community pharmacy or as a pilot. NHS England is also considering plans for piloting National Health Service independent prescribing services nationally.