Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of foundation pharmacists beginning their training in 2025 have been assigned a Designated Practicing Practitioner.

To support the development of Designated Practicing Practitioner (DPP) capacity, NHS England has and continues to engage with training sites and invest in training for independent prescribers, as well as initiatives to support the development and safe practice of DPPs.

From the 20205/26 Foundation Trainee Pharmacist Programme, trainee pharmacists in England start their foundation training in the 2025/26 year in two windows: 14 July 2025 - 4 August 2025 (Summer) and 20 October 2025 - 10 November 2025 (Autumn).

Every foundation trainee pharmacist that has graduated against the 2021 General Pharmaceutical Council Learning Outcomes for the Initial Education and Training of Pharmacists will require a Designated Prescribing Practitioner (DPP) during their foundation training period to support supervision and assessment of prescribing training activities.

All prospective training sites for 2025/26 were required to make a declaration that they meet the National Recruitment Scheme (NRS) Terms of Participation at the point that the training sites were entered into the NRS. This includes the declaration that they would provide a DPP for the trainee. Training sites are required to provide details of the DPP to NHS England after the trainee pharmacist commences in post.

NHS England is currently collating details of supervisors. Data will be available for the 2025 cohort by the end of the 2025 calendar year.