According to a pilot scheme scheduled to become valid next year, women will be able to obtain the contraceptive pill from pharmacists without the need for a GP prescription.

Women will be able to obtain the oral contraceptive after only an interview with a qualified pharmacist to establish their fitness and suitability.

If the pilots are successful, the Pill could be put on the same footing as the morning-after pill.

Two London primary care trusts (PCTs) have received cash to act as test sites, to see if the scheme is suitable for rolling out across the rest of the country.

Health minister Lord Darzi insisted last year that "robust" standards would be put in place to ensure that staff involved were up to the job.

The move requires a senior clinician at strategic health authorities to issue instructions called patient group directions (PGDs) to pharmacists.

PGDs are documents  that make it legal for medicines to be given to groups of patients without the need for individual GP prescriptions.

These arrangements are currently in place for the morning-after pill.

Separate PGDs  will be needed to  issue the Pill to under-16s.

Such arrangements are currently in place for the morning-after pill and involve the pharmacist assessing whether a youngster is mentally competent.

The new pilot sites for issuing the Pill will run at Lambeth and Southwark PCTs in London.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Pilots like these will help to show whether supplying contraception through pharmacies is effective in reducing unintended pregnancies and we have invested an additional £26.8m in 2008/09 to do this."