asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will list the statutory provisions under which pharmacists are obliged to maintain an emergency service outside normal working hours.

Pharmacists are not obliged to dispense NHS prescriptions outside the normal or local rota hours laid down in Family Practitioner Committee's Hours of Service Schemes made under Regulation 29 of the NHS (General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1974 (SI 1974 No. 160), but many voluntarily do so, if available.