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Good news for pharmacies in Northern Ireland as the Stormont administration agrees to a £40 million support package aimed at softening the blow of the new National Insurance contributions (NICs) for employers.

The surprise May announcement will see a projected total of £40 million in dedicated NIC relief extended across non-statutory health and social care providers, with GPs, dentists, hospices and others all to get a look in. 

The terms of distribution have not yet been announced, and it is to be expected that some pharmacies will get a greater share than others. But if split evenly across Northern Ireland’s 511 pharmacies, it would mean a bump of just under £8,000 per business – not to be sniffed at in straitened times. 

Health minister Mike Nesbitt said the move was aimed at stabilising vital public services and that it is “crucially important to support providers who have been hit with additional costs for reasons entirely outside their control”. 

Gerard Greene, chief executive of negotiating body Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI), said his team had “worked closely with the minister to ensure that the financial impact of these increased staff costs is understood”. 

Greene’s comments suggested that the support package won’t fully offset the impact of NIC increases and the higher minimum wage – CPNI estimates the cost burden of these hikes will be in the region of £12 million – but nonetheless it is a positive development for Northern Ireland’s pharmacies, which have endured a harsh funding landscape for some years.

It’s always good to report sector events outside of England, especially when it’s a positive story like this. But with most of our readers based in Albion and feeling underwhelmed by the new deal announced on 31 March, many will be asking themselves why their negotiators have failed to wangle anything similar out of Westminster.

Labour made clear that it was not minded to write exemptions to NIC increases for pharmacies into its finance bill, having used its parliamentary majority – which included the only two pharmacist MPs currently elected – to vote down such measures in March despite overwhelming support in the House of Lords. It would jeopardise plans for public service reform, it claimed. 

England’s pharmacies are feeling pretty jeopardised themselves. Business owners’ confidence in the future remains low despite the funding uplift awarded in the 2025-26 contract, as Community Pharmacy England (CPE) revealed in recent sector polling. 

In light of the Stormont announcement, one can’t help wondering if CPE pushed hard enough for employment cost relief. They’re good at explaining the Treasury’s ‘red lines’ to us, but are they firm enough in setting their own?