UK Parliament
Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock has said that he has “no doubt as to the value that pharmacy and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society [RPS] bring to our NHS and wider society”.
During a pre-recorded speech played at the Society’s annual conference, which was held at Convene, Houndsditch in London on 7 November 2025, Kinnock told delegates that the “key role” that pharmacists will play in the “cornerstone of neighbourhood health teams” — as outlined in the NHS ten-year plan — was “not a revolution, it’s evolution”.
The government was “focused on removing the red tape, the frustrations of the profession”, he said.
Kinnock also highlighted supervision legislation, which he said will “touch each and every one of you”. “I hope [it] will provide great opportunities to develop professional practice and services as part of a modernised NHS,” he said.
“The government cannot make these changes alone, and I remain immensely grateful for the role that the RPS are playing to develop professional guidance to implement these changes in practice,” he added.
Kinnock went on to talk about pharmacist prescribing and explained that “pathfinder sites have delivered 34,000 consultations, with around 60% of these resulting in a prescribing decision and 97% of episodes completed without referral to a GP”.
“Embedding pharmacists more deeply into primary care, neighbourhood teams, urgent care and prescribing pathways, we will be enabling a higher quality and more preventative approach in medicine,” he said.
Kinnock also noted that in future, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and their teams would be more involved in clinical trials and research activity, “as part of the important drive to help address health inequality”.
“It is an exciting time for the RPS and for everyone in this sector — and I look forward to continuing to work with the pharmacy profession to deliver what we all want: a service that is fit for the future,” he added.
In comments provided exclusively to The Pharmaceutical Journal in July 2025, Kinnock said that pharmacies “are so much more than places where people pick up medicines — they can be the soul of communities, places to get much needed medical advice, with highly trained professionals ready and eager to help”.
