UK Parliament
Around 15% of pharmacy contractors in England received the initial £500 fixed payment for hitting a lower threshold of Pharmacy First consultations in June 2025, the first month it was available, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock has said.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question, published on 5 January 2026, Kinnock said that the £500 “interim” payment was given to 1,565 pharmacy contractors who conducted between 20 and 29 Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations in June 2025.
He added that a further 4,051 pharmacies reached 30 consultations and were eligible for the £1,000 monthly payment in June 2025, approximately 39% of England’s then 10,405 pharmacies.
The two-year community pharmacy contract, published in March 2025, announced that from June 2025, an interim £500 payment would be introduced for pharmacies that deliver 20 to 29 clinical pathways — a reduction on the 30 consultations that would otherwise trigger the monthly £1,000 payment.
“The new tier of payment supports pharmacies with lower potential for delivery and has increased the number of pharmacies qualifying for Pharmacy First fixed payments,” Kinnock said.
Further analysis of NHS Business Service Authority data conducted by The Pharmaceutical Journal suggests that in July 2025, 1,560 pharmacies delivered between 20 and 29 Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations.
In August 2025, 1,702 pharmacies claimed for 20 to 29 consultations, while in September 2025, the figure was 1,770, the analysis found.
These figures may be higher than the number of pharmacies that actually received the payments from July to September 2025, as The Pharmaceutical Journal does not have access to which pharmacies have registered to provide the additional services – the pharmacy contraception service and hypertension case-finding service – now required to receive the monthly payment.
Commenting on the lower threshold payments, Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England, said the new payment system had achieved its aim of “more pharmacy owners receiving a monthly payment, that otherwise would have done under the former system”.
“That is good news for those pharmacy owners, but we will continue to advocate for Pharmacy First to become a walk-in service for all patients, so the unfunded consultations pharmacies currently provide to patients receive appropriate funding,” he added.
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association also welcomed the introduction of the interim payment. “It ensures that pharmacies that endeavour to reach Pharmacy First thresholds do not face a cliff edge if they fall slightly short,” he said.
“We will continue to closely monitor payment levels and expect that they will be reviewed in the upcoming contractual negotiations, which are due imminently.”
