We now move on to item 11 and the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2020. I call on the Minister to move that motion—Vaughan Gething.

Motion NDM7378 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2020 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 6 August 2020.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. These regulations today, as the explanatory memorandum sets out, have previously been laid twice before the Senedd, and it's my pleasure to move the regulations today. They were first laid on 17 March this year, and then withdrawn as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, then re-laid on 8 July, but withdrawn in order to correct a minor technical scrutiny point made in the last scrutiny report at that time. 

The regulations are being introduced under powers inserted into the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 by the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017. The major policy change effected by these regulations is that health boards will be required to conduct and publish a pharmaceutical needs assessment for its area and to determine applications to provide NHS pharmaceutical services against that assessment. The regulations also introduce a way of dealing with breaches of the terms of service by NHS pharmacists and NHS appliance contractors. 

Much work has been done by the Welsh Government in recent years to move health services that were traditionally provided in hospitals into the community, closer to where we live. We have concentrated significant effort in transforming community pharmacy to deliver a range of services that traditionally have been delivered by general practitioners, and I welcome the broad cross-party support in doing so. All pharmacies are now able to provide the common ailments service, many undertake medicine reviews on discharge from hospital, offer flu vaccinations, provide advice and support on smoking cessation and the emergency contraception service. However, the current regulatory regime and approach has been in place for over 27 years and no longer adequately reflects the ways in which the role of community pharmacies have developed in that time. 

In order to maximise the public health role of community pharmacy, a role that has clearly been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of pharmaceutical needs assessments makes a fundamental change to the way in which decisions about pharmaceutical services in Wales are made by health boards. Although based on the English model for pharmaceutical needs assessments, our extensive stakeholder engagement has resulted in a made-in-Wales policy specifically focused on the provision of community pharmacy in Wales. Our model of pharmaceutical needs assessment complements the measures the Welsh Government has taken since 2017 to transform the delivery of the community pharmacy contractual framework. Once the regulations are in force, applications will move from being driven by contractors and focused heavily on the dispensing of prescriptions to a process that is alert and responsive to the broader pharmaceutical needs of their local population. 

These changes to the way that pharmaceutical services are planned will enable the NHS and specifically health boards to better meet the needs of local communities and better reflect the crucial public health role of community pharmacies. I ask the Senedd to support the regulations before us. 

Andrew R.T. Davies. Andrew R.T. Davies. No, you don't wish to speak. That's the reason you're not unmuting yourself here. Okay. I'm assuming the Minister doesn't need to respond to nobody, so I ask if everybody is content for the motion under item 11 to be agreed. Any objection? No. So, the motion has been accepted. [Interruption.] Oh.

I did have my hand up. 

Yes, I missed that, Gareth Bennett. I'll accept that. I'll thank the Minister for drawing—I thank the Minister for drawing that to my attention, and I'll accept that as an objection, and I will delay that vote until the voting time. Okay.

Voting deferred until voting time.

Which brings us to voting time, but, in accordance with Standing Order 34.14D, there will be a break now of five minutes until the beginning of voting time. So, the break will begin now. 

Plenary was suspended at 17:19.

The Senedd reconvened at 17:27, with the Llywydd in the Chair.