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No new applications for distance-selling pharmacies (DSPs) will be accepted from 23 June 2025, after regulatory changes were laid in Parliament.
The move was agreed as part of the ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’ (CPCF) for 2025/2026 but was not announced until 2 June 2025, the government confirmed.
In an explanatory memorandum published alongside the legislative amendments, the government said the changes had been introduced to tackle new pharmacies being set up as DSPs but then providing local services.
Currently, DSPs are exempt from market entry regulations that require any new provider of NHS pharmaceutical services to demonstrate an unmet local need.
“Continuation of [the] DSP exemption created a situation where a traditional pharmacy is not able to open due to market entry tests, [while] a satisfactory application from a DSP offering to provide the same services (albeit remotely) has to be accepted and once open, the pharmacy can also provide the same directed services as a traditional pharmacy face to face on its premises,” the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) explained.
The legislation will also be amended to prevent DSPs from providing any remote services in person on the premises.
The DHSC said the changes would result in “an even playing field for all potential pharmacy contractors”.
It added that it would “continue monitoring the market closely and may consider reintroducing the exemption, potentially with the revised market entry criteria, if patient choice of pharmaceutical service providers is impaired”.
The government confirmed to The Pharmaceutical Journal that the changes to DSP market entry conditions and the timing of the announcement of the changes were agreed with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) as part of the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 CPCF consultation.
In a statement on its website, published on 3 June 2025, CPE said the short notice period before the changes come into force was intended to “reduce the number of applications before the market entry exemption closes”.
And in FAQs published on its website on 5 June 2025, the negotiator said that the approximately 400 DSPs in England “should be more than sufficient for England”.
“While the DSP pharmacy exemption initially helped provide a wider choice for patients, the situation has changed. As many DSP pharmacies are now in place, additional DSP applications are beginning to undermine the integrity of market entry controls — with the establishment of local DSPs established without reference to local patient needs,” it said.
“New ‘local’ DSP pharmacies that establish can undermine the viability of nearby ‘bricks-and-mortar’ pharmacies and threaten their investment in the pharmacy network and the face-to-face provision of (currently essential) pharmaceutical services they offer to patients,” CPE added.
In a report published in 2023, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) suggested that more than 70% of DSPs were only providing prescriptions to local patients.
Conor Daly, a qualified pharmacist and lawyer at pharmacy consulting firm Rushport Advisory, suggested that “pseudo-DSPs” had been an unintended consequence of the DSP market entry exemption in England.
“I think what the government wanted was lots of Pharmacy2U-style operators that were offering national services, and they just didn’t really get that,” he told The Pharmaceutical Journal.
“Does it really harm anybody to have more of these distance-selling pharmacies? I don’t think so. But the reality is that decision has been made,” Daly added.
He suggested that the move, which guards against increased competition, would be welcomed by existing pharmacy owners.
However, for those with plans to set up a DSP who are unable to secure a premises and submit an application before 23 June 2025, the news “is going to be very disappointing”, he said.
Daly also suggested that the regulatory changes might impact contractors’ plans for hub-and-spoke dispensing across different legal entities.
He explained that where a new DSP was planned to be used as a pharmacy ‘spoke’ to enable direct delivery of prescriptions to patients, this would no longer be possible unless the DSP could be set up before 23 June 2025.
Hub-and-spoke dispensing between different legal entities will be permitted from 1 October 2025 under draft amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
Also commenting on the regulatory changes, Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association said: “When the DSP exemption to market entry restrictions was introduced, two decades ago, the landscape was very different.
“By now many bricks and mortar pharmacies have developed online parts to their service to help support their patients. Bricks and clicks is becoming commonplace in the sector, as hybrid models can deliver a more convenient and flexible service.
“In such circumstances, this regulatory change is a sensible and pragmatic step forwards.”
The Pharmaceutical Journal approached other pharmacy organisations for comment, including the CCA and the General Pharmaceutical Council, both of which declined to comment.
The Digital Clinical Excellence Forum and the Independent Pharmacies Association did not respond.
- This article was amended on 6 June 2025 to add an additional quote
