Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the amount of time pharmacists in the community spend on providing direct clinical services, excluding the dispensing of medicines.

The Department has not made such an assessment.

All pharmacies undertaking National Health Service pharmaceutical services are required to provide essential services, which include services in addition to dispensing medicines, such self-care advice and supporting healthy lifestyles. They may also provide advanced services such as the new medicine service and seasonal flu vaccination. The time community pharmacies in practice spend on these individual services will vary between pharmacies and has not been assessed by the Department.