Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure all new pharmacy graduates from September 2026 are able to independently prescribe.

The Government recently announced a £340 million uplift to community pharmacy funding, a 10% increase, recognising the essential role pharmacies play in supporting patients and the wider National Health Service. As part of this, we are funding the rollout of NHS Independent Prescribing nationwide from Autumn 2026, building on the success of Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service to help pharmacists use their clinical skills and provide more on-the-spot care for common conditions.

Under the new contractual framework, pharmacists with an independent prescribing qualification, including those graduating from September 2026, will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly. This rollout draws on learning from successful NHS pathfinder sites. In the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, the pathfinder delivered 2,434 consultations up to 31 December 2025, of which 2,248, or 92.4%, were completed without onward referral and 1,424, or 58.5%, resulted in a pharmacist issuing a prescription, demonstrating its positive impact.