Battery Shortage for NHS Hearing Aids

Debate between Baroness Merron and Lord Spellar

Thursday 29th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I hope I share the noble Lord’s definition. I am enthusiastic about our new approach through the community diagnostic centres that noble Lords will have seen come on stream and be established all around the country. I agree totally about the age range, which is why we promote the fact that free hearing tests are available, and I encourage people to do them. The highest ever number of tests was done in October, over 136,000, which shows that the message is getting out, but I think the all-round approach of community diagnostics centres will really help us here.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

Does this not once again reveal the fundamental flaw in the Government’s procurement policy, which the Treasury is still pursuing, of going for “cheapest is best” and ignoring all the lessons both of the pandemic and of the Ukraine war, which showed that relying on single points of failure regularly and consistently delivers problems into our system, in the long term at much greater cost? Do we not need a better-balanced programme?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I understand that point. Actually, that is one of the reasons we are encouraging ICBs to move to rechargeable batteries. As my noble friend says, it is about looking to the longer term. As part of the lessons learned, that is one of the things that we will look at to see how we can improve the underlying situation.

Creon

Debate between Baroness Merron and Lord Spellar

Thursday 5th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a very good point, because the reality is that there are very limited manufacturers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy—which applies to a number of people, not just those who have pancreatic cancer—so I do understand that point. It is the case that several non-UK suppliers have expressed an interest in bringing their products to the UK, and they are currently under review with the MHRA. Of course, I hope noble Lords are aware that this Government prioritise UK life sciences, and that is absolutely key. We have established incentives to encourage manufacture, including up to £520 million to support businesses that invest in life-science manufacturing products.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, may I put it to my noble friend the Minister that there is also an underlying problem, which was also revealed during COVID, that too often the end-use manufacturers are highly dependent on a supply chain that is often in countries that are either unreliable or, indeed, even hostile? These may seem to be basic supplies, but in fact they are enormously important for the final product. Should not the Government in this area, and indeed in others, be looking at this more seriously?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I believe that we are looking at this very seriously. Of course, medicine supply chains are complex, global and highly regulated, so there are a number of reasons why supply can be disrupted and a number of reasons why supply might not be specifically as we would like. Unfortunately, some of those are out of government control. To be honest, we cannot prevent all medicine shortages, but we can take as many steps as possible. I can assure my noble friend that the whole point about increasing resilience of the UK medicine supply chain remains a key priority. We work with industry, we work with the regulator and we will improve the position of the UK as a destination for life sciences and manufacturing in this regard.