Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to implement the recommendations of the Fuller Stocktake report including through expanding the role of the pharmacy sector in the delivery of primary care services; and if he will make a statement.

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 sets out how community pharmacy will become further integrated in the National Health Service, delivering more clinical services and provide treatment and advice for minor illnesses. Since 2019, several services have been introduced and expanded in community pharmacy to use the skills of pharmacy teams and relieve pressures in primary care.

In September 2022, we announced that community pharmacists will manage and initiate contraception and provide additional support to patients newly prescribed antidepressants. In addition, urgent emergency care settings will refer patients to a community pharmacist for a minor illness consultation or an urgent medicine supply.