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Proposals to introduce charges for community pharmacies to register to dispose of drugs have been dropped by the Environment Agency (EA).
In a consultation response to the proposals, published on 1 July 2025, the EA said “T28 exemptions are excluded from waste exemption charges, so these exemptions will not be subject to a charge”.
In a statement published on 4 July 2025, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) welcomed the decision and estimated that the decision on T28 exemptions would save the community pharmacy sector around £900,000 every three years.
In January 2025, the EA proposed introducing a “compliance band charge” for registering under the T28 exemption, which allows pharmacies to denature and dispose of controlled drugs to comply with the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
Another proposal would have required exempt operators to pay a registration charge of £56 to register one or more waste exemptions for a three-year period.
At the time, CPE and the National Pharmacy Association responded to the consultation, with both bodies saying they “strongly disagree” with the proposals, calling them “outrageous”.
Both pharmacy bodies said they did not agree that the T28 exemption in band 3 should apply to NHS community pharmacies because they are already regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council and must already register for the T28 exemption to meet the NHS terms of service.
CPE also said it “strongly disagreed” with the £56 charge, adding that NHS community pharmacies would be unable to pass the costs on to their patients.
“While other businesses are entitled to increase their charges to the public for services they offer, community pharmacies are not able to do this [as] NHS services are funded by the NHS/the government,” it said at the time.
In comments published following the EA’s decision not to levy charges, CPE said: “The EA has published its response to the waste charges consultation, which indicates our efforts to stop an increase in charges for community pharmacies have been successful.
“As a result of our response, the EA has removed the T28 exemption from its proposal, which is estimated to have saved the sector circa £900,000 every three years.”
Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association said: “We’re delighted that the EA has listened to us and other organisations in community pharmacy and dropped this proposal.
“Pharmacies have to dispose of medication as a matter of routine and there are well established procedures for doing that.
“It’s right the government should crack down on flytipping and environmentally damaging waste dumping, But it’s right that they have dropped plans to charge pharmacies for this and have supported the vital role pharmacies play in the responsible disposable of drugs to prevent them becoming a hazard to the public.”
- This story was amended on 7 July 2025 to include additional comment
