Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made on plans to employ up to 2,000 pharmacists in general practices across the country; and if he will make a statement.

To date, the pilot programme has successfully integrated 491 clinical pharmacists into 658 general practices across England.

Funding is now available for the deployment of the further 1,500 clinical pharmacists in general practices by 2020. The online application portal for funding has been open since 9 January 2017. Providers of general practice medical services will be able to apply for the programme funding over at least the next three years.

We expect the first cohort of successful applicants to be announced in March 2017. Upon announcement of a successful application, providers of general practice medical services are expected to commence recruitment and make all reasonable efforts to appoint clinical pharmacists into general practices as soon as possible.