The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013. They govern the arrangements in England, under Part 7 of the National Health Service Act 2006 (“ the 2006 Act ”), for the provision of NHS pharmaceutical and local pharmaceutical services.

The scheme for paying for NHS pharmaceutical and local pharmaceutical services is predicated on the basis that pharmaceutical remuneration that relates to prescription items will ordinarily include an amount which is in respect of the price that a service provider paid when they purchased a prescription item that they go on to supply or administer. However, there are powers in Part 7 of the 2006 Act to enable alternatives to these ordinary remuneration arrangements in some circumstances.

Regulation 2 amends the alternative arrangements that already allow a zero or nominal NHS reimbursement price to be set for centrally purchased vaccines for other viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus and measles, mumps and rubella, so that they also apply to centrally purchased vaccines for vaccinating or immunising people against specified causes of meningococcal disease, and for tetanus, diphtheria and polio vaccines.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the public sector is foreseen, and only a limited impact on the private sector, below the threshold for producing a full impact assessment.