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 adequacy of local Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments.

We are committed to expanding the role of community pharmacies. We want to develop and better utilise the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to improve access to care in local communities and address inequalities.

That includes making prescribing part of the services delivered by community pharmacists. In preparation, NHS England is piloting the use of prescribing by community pharmacists in a range of pathways that will enable them to play an increasing role in delivering clinical services in primary care.

Local authorities’ health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) have a statutory duty to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments (PNAs) every three years to assess whether their population is adequately served, and to keep these assessments up to date until the next assessment is produced. The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 outline minimum statutory requirements for PNAs, and an information pack was published in October 2021 to support HWBs in meeting their duty.

Whilst PNAs inform integrated care board commissioning and decisions on applications by new contractors wishing to provide NHS pharmaceutical services in the local area, contractors can also apply to open a new pharmacy if they can demonstrate that they will meet a need that was not foreseen by the PNA.