Pharmacy: Closures
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many community pharmacies have closed in England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The NHS Business Services Authority publishes official statistics which include the number of pharmacies opening and closing each financial year. This information is available at the following link:
The Government recognises that pharmacies are an integral part of the fabric of our communities, as an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, and that local pharmacy closures can have a real impact on those communities. That is why local authorities’ health and wellbeing boards regularly assess local pharmaceutical need and future demand through pharmaceutical needs assessments, which then inform integrated care boards’ commissioning decisions.
The Government has increased funding for the community pharmacy sector by £340 million in 2026/27, which supports all pharmacies in England. This builds on the 19% uplift to the community pharmacy budget across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
This funding helps to maintain the Pharmacy Access Scheme, which provides targeted support to more isolated pharmacies to help ensure continued access to services. Currently nearly 1,400 pharmacies receive payments through the Pharmacy Access Scheme, with an average payment of £1,130 per month.
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