I am pleased to announce that we have now concluded our consultation on the community pharmacy contractual framework for 2026-27. We have agreed with Community Pharmacy England that in 2026-27 the CPCF will increase to £3,636 million, an increase of £340 million—or 10% —compared with 2025-26 budgets.

This investment will enable us to roll out independent prescribing—a Government manifesto commitment—which will allow us to improve access to primary care and better use the skills of pharmacy teams to keep people well in their communities.

This funding will include an increase in the retained medicine margin to further support the supply of medication. The medicine margin allowance will be £1.1 billion in 2026-27, an increase of £200 million from 2025-26. In addition, we have agreed to write off up to £239 million of historical net contract overspend—driven by over-delivery of medicines margin. This will bring more certainty of funding for contractors and support pharmacies in purchasing the medication prescribed for patients.

This agreement with CPE will provide much-needed investment, further building on last year’s uplift in stabilising the community pharmacy sector. We are also committing to work with the sector on reforms that improve sector sustainability, ensuring that community pharmacies are able to continue to deliver for patients.

I would like to thank CPE’s committee and am grateful to them for working constructively and at pace with officials to agree how best to use this significant new investment to support the sector, so that community pharmacies can continue to provide services to patients across the country.

This announcement follows record investment over the last two years and a range of measures to deliver more services to patients, including:

making emergency contraception available free of charge at pharmacies on the NHS;

offering patients suffering from depression convenient support at pharmacies when they are prescribed antidepressants, to boost mental health support in the community;

cutting red tape and bureaucracy to give patients easier access to consultations, with more of the pharmacy team able to deliver a wider number of services; and

boosting funding for medicine supply so that patients have better access to the medicines prescribed for them.

I am therefore very pleased to share this announcement and look forward to continued collaborative working with Community Pharmacy England and the wider sector as we build on what we have announced today and deliver what we all want for community pharmacy: a service fit for the future.

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