PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(25 February 2026)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has provided to community pharmacies through retained margin in the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework in real terms accounting for inflation in each year since 2016.

Asked by:
Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat)

The following table shows the nominal and real terms funding through retained margin as part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) each year since 2015/16:

Year	Nominal value	Gross domestic product deflator at December 2025	Real terms value 2025/26 prices
2015/16	£800,000,000	72.46	£1020,000,000
2016/17	£800,000,000	73.91	£1009,000,000
2017/18	£800,000,000	74.85	£1001,000,000
2018/19	£800,000,000	76.55	£988,000,000
2019/20	£800,000,000	78.57	£971,000,000
2020/21	£800,000,000	82.68	£939,000,000
2021/22	£800,000,000	82.87	£937,000,000
2022/23	£800,000,000	88.70	£890,000,000
2023/24	£800,000,000	93.38	£853,000,000
2024/25	£850,000,000	97.14	£874,000,000
2025/26	£900,000,000	100	£900,000,000

Notes:

1. for 2022/23 and 2023/24, an additional £50 million in funding was provided via writing off over-delivery; and
2. for 2025/26, an additional £193 million in funding was provided via writing off over-delivery.

The Department, along with Community Pharmacy England, assess the medicines margin retained through a quarterly ‘medicines margin survey’. Where the medicine margin survey shows under or over delivery against the funding provided, then adjustments are made to reimbursement prices to bring it line with the allowed medicine margin as per CPCF.

Answered by:
()