A committee of influential MPs has called for an update on the highly anticipated economic review of community pharmacy in England.

The Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) has today asked NHS England to share when it anticipates the economic analysis of the community pharmacy sector will be fully completed, and if it intends to publish the analysis and accompanying data in full and when.

If there are no plans to publish the analysis in full, the committee asked NHS England to provide a reason for this and to spell out what it would publish instead.

It comes after The Pharmacist reported that NHS England would not share further details of their review while contract negotiations were ongoing.

And a statement from Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has previously suggested that the review may not yet be complete.

The negotiator said on 18 February that it had 'considered draft findings of the review' in early February and had then 'submitted further comments to the report’s authors'.

It then said its committee would 'consider the final report once completed', as part of the 'ongoing negotiation process'.

The independent economic review of community pharmacy was commissioned by NHS England as part of the 2022-24 contract in a bid to uncover the ‘full economic costs’ of delivering NHS pharmaceutical services and the sustainability of the funding model.

Earlier this month, community pharmacy representatives called for the economic review of the sector to be published immediately for the sake of transparency in contract negotiations.

The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) and National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said the review should be published immediately so the sector could understand how any funding offer was arrived at.

But on 17 February, a spokesperson at NHS England told The Pharmacist it was 'unable to give any further details while consultations are ongoing with Community Pharmacy England over 2024/25 and 2025/26 funding arrangements'.

The NPA subsequently accused the commissioner of ‘suppressing’ the report.

Today, HSCC chair and Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran has written to outgoing NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard to seek an update on the review’s completion and publication.

Responding to this letter, NPA chair Nick Kaye said it was 'pleased to see that the Health Select Committee is seeking an urgent update on the full publication of the Independent Economic Analysis'.

'The NPA has called for much needed transparency - there is no reason why this document cannot be published immediately.

'It is vitally important the public can fully understand the financial pressures affecting community pharmacy before any offer is put forward by the government.'

An NHS England spokesperson said: 'NHS England is committed to publishing this important report, but we are currently unable to give any further details while consultations are ongoing with Community Pharmacy England over 2024/25 and 2025/26 funding arrangements. All parties to the consultation have access to the details of the work to date.'

The Department of Health and Social Care has also been approached for comment.