The most recent changes to the NHS Regulations in England that allow pharmacy owners to change core opening hour were made in June 2025. We published a briefing at that time explaining these changes. This briefing can be found here: Core Hours Briefing.
In the months after this change was made, a number of applications for core hours changes were approved by ICBs, appearing to signal a helpful relaxation of the rules. These approvals allowed pharmacy contractors to redistribute their core hours to better meet the needs of patients. In many cases this meant contractors could close at times of the week that were potentially loss making. This was in keeping with the 2025 funding settlement which prompted these changes to the regulations.
However, over the last couple of months we have seen a worrying shift toward IBCs refusing applications made under the 2025 amendments. This appears to have been prompted by the approach taken by NHS Resolution when considering some recent core hour appeals.
In our opinion, the approach being taken by NHS Resolution fails to take into account the reasons these changes were introduced in the first place. We believe their interpretation will make it impossible for most pharmacy owners to successfully change their core hours using these 2025 regulations. We have recently submitted an appeal on behalf of one of our clients making this case and we await the outcome of that appeal with interest.
The ‘2023 legal test’ still remains an option for some pharmacy owners to amend their core hours and, as this has been considered many times by NHS Resolution, the outcome of these applications is generally more predictable.
If you are considering a change of core hours application, we can provide you with advice on the best approach to submitting a successful application.
