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The Scottish Government has announced a four per cent uplift to the core global sum funding for community pharmacies in the current financial year.

But this £9.31m uplift for 2025-26 – which will be “directly used” to lessen the impact of rising costs such as employers’ national insurance – is “not enough” to cover the sector’s rapidly increasing costs, negotiating body Community Pharmacy Scotland has warned. 

CPS chief executive Matt Barclay commented: “We appreciate the fiscal constraints currently being experienced by the Scottish Government.

“However, the four per cent being applied this year is not enough to cover the rising operating costs being faced by the pharmacy network.”

Mr Barclay added that the funding announcement comes amid the release of government policy papers outlining an “enhanced role for primary care and community pharmacy as part of wider health service restructuring”. This is to include an expansion of Scotland's Pharmacy First service to cover more common health conditions.

 He said that while CPE supports these goals, pharmacies “need to be adequately resourced to support our shared ambitions” and that today’s settlement “currently falls short of our requirements”. 

The global sum uplift follows the announcement in May of a £10m boost to the minimum level of drugs reimbursement for 2025-26, from £110m to £120m. 

In addition to this there was an increase in the value mapped from the Scottish Drug Tariff by £20 million resulting in the current £80 million increasing to £100 million. This £100 million will be delivered as guaranteed service income.

In offering the sector monies expressly intended to help cover contractors’ rising national insurance obligations, the Scottish Government follows Northern Ireland, where community pharmacies been offered a dedicated fund of £4m aimed at lessening the blow of the higher employer contributions that came into effect on April 1. 

No dedicated financial support for national insurance costs has been made available to community pharmacies in England, with MPs voting down a bill that would have exempted the sector from paying the new higher rate.