Some constituencies in England have fewer than 10 pharmacies to serve their population, new data from the House of Commons Library has revealed.

And across England and Wales, the total number of 12,204 pharmacies in September 2016 had fallen by 8% to 11,184 in January 2025.

The Liberal Democrats, which commissioned the analysis, warned 'pharmacy deserts' were becoming 'normalised', and called on the government to exempt pharmacies from the increase in National Insurance employers' contribution.

The party's health and social care spokesperson Helen Morgan said the 'shameful neglect' of the sector by the previous government had 'brought us to this point', but said 'the Labour Government’s decision to hammer pharmacies once again with their damaging jobs tax risks making the situation so much worse'.

'With so many pharmacies already having gone to the wall and with many more at risk of closure, the government needs to change course,' she added.

The data shows that some constituencies in England had as few as seven, eight or nine pharmacies in January 2025.

Wetherby and Easingwold had seven pharmacies, Waveney Valley and Weald of Kent both had eight, and Kenilworth and Southam and Mid Bedfordshire both had nine.

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Meanwhile, the Cities of London and Westminster constituency had 68 pharmacies, Birmingham Ladywood had 49, and Birmingham Perry Barr and Holborn and St Pancras both had 38.

Parliamentary constituencies are designed to encompass around equal numbers of voters in each area. Each has an electorate of around 73,000 registered voters, except five island seats including Ynys Môn in Wales and the two seats allocated to the Isle of Wight.

But while nearly all pharmacies across England saw a decrease in the number of pharmacies in the last decade, many areas of Wales – which started with generally lower numbers of pharmacies – saw the opposite.

And pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock's own constituency of Aberafan Maesteg saw pharmacy provision almost double between 2016 and 2025.

Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), told The Pharmacist: 'Over the last ten years, funding for community pharmacies in Wales has increased at greater rate than for those in England. This has meant that the network of pharmacies in Wales is more robust and has suffered fewer closures.

'Prior to the new funding deal, pharmacies in England had seen a decade of both actual and real term funding cuts. This has led to more pharmacy closures than seen in Wales, and a significant reduction of opening hours across the remaining network.'

He said the CCA welcomed the recent funding deal in England as 'a positive first step', but said: 'more needs to be done to help community pharmacies in England survive.'

Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said funding challenges across the UK were 'significant'.

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And he noted: 'English pharmacies have suffered deep historic cuts to funding and this has undoubtedly accelerated closure rates, particularly in the last three years.'

He added: 'We hope the government's announcement of additional funding for England will act as a turning point but given the scale of the funding gap they have inherited, it is clear there is still a long way to go to meeting these challenges.'

Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) president Professor Claire Anderson said: ‘Community pharmacies are a vital part of the health service, often providing the first point of contact for patients.

‘Each closure risks widening health inequalities, especially in areas with higher levels of deprivation or limited access to other healthcare services. Patients must be able to access a resilient community pharmacy network.’

And Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said: 'The impact of a decade’s worth of cost-cutting and efficiency squeezes by previous Governments has left pharmacy businesses across the UK fighting to survive, and closures continuing at an alarming rate.'

She added: 'Given that health is a devolved policy issue, different parts of the UK have been affected to varying extents, but each and every closure has a negative impact on its community and puts extra strain on the local healthcare system.'

Pharmacies in England were recently given a £3bn contract which CPE said could mean an extra £5,432 a month per pharmacy, although this would ‘vary considerably’ throughout the sector.

And the community pharmacy sector in Wales was recently awarded a £6m additional funding boost as a ‘stability payment’.

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In response to the analysis, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Pharmacies are integral to the fabric of our communities and we want them to play a bigger role as we shift care out of hospitals and into the community through our Plan for Change.

‘We’re working to turn around a decade of underfunding and neglect that has left the sector on the brink of collapse.’

They added: ‘We have recently agreed an extra £617m of funding over two years with Community Pharmacy England to help community pharmacies, support the sector and provide patients with greater services closer to home.’