Brexit: Medical Research and Innovation

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Monday 21st November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I entirely agree with the noble Lord on the excellence of our research and development base, and on the great work being done by the research councils. I look forward to debating the way forward when the Bill on education and research reaches this House in the coming weeks. New funding has been made available today. This vision and direction of travel is excellent news for our science and research base in every part of the country.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, the Minister ducked the question on the European Medicines Agency. Will she answer a question about the MHRA, the UK medicines regulator, which is regarded as the finest regulator in Europe and is one factor behind the large investment in medical research in the UK? In the Brexit negotiations, will she ensure that there is mutual recognition, so that medicines licensed by the MHRA will continue to be recognised throughout Europe?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I will feed the noble Lord’s suggestion into the process that is going on to make sure that we get the best deal in the Brexit negotiations on all these issues. He will know that Jo Johnson has a set up a forum with senior representatives of UK Research and Innovation to look at such matters, and that work continues in the Department of Health. This is a very important area. A lot of the detail is complex, but we are aware of that and, as I said in my opening comment, a great deal of work is going on.

Business: Advice Services

Debate between Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Tuesday 8th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

My Lords, the Chancellor made it clear in his Autumn Statement that businesses need an active and sustained industrial strategy. We continue to work closely with different industry sectors—I do so with electronics and professional services. A whole series of announcements were made in relation to manufacturing to provide more support for aerospace, automotive, defence and transport.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned SMEs. Is she aware of the concern that the central government procurement contracts are actually squeezing SMEs out from winning contracts? Is she prepared to look at government procurement policy again?