Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing (a) employer National Insurance Contributions and (b) the National Minimum Wage on pharmacies in (i) Kent and (ii) Weald of Kent constituency.

We took the necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement.

The Department considered the increases to employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage as part of the funding arrangements for community pharmacy in 2024/25 and 2025/26. We have increased funding for community pharmacy to £3.073 billion from April 2025. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future as well as a commitment to rebuilding the sector.