Medicines and Medical Devices Bill

Alex Norris Excerpts

Report stage & 3rd reading & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

I move now to amendments tabled by the hon. Members for Nottingham North (Alex Norris) and for St Helens South and Whiston (Ms Rimmer). I thank them for tabling them and hope that I can engage as much as possible with the points raised. Amendments 21, 22 and 23 are similar to those put down—

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a thrill for a Government Minister to move my amendments, although that might be giving me false hope. But I just wanted to put on record for colleagues that the purpose of amendment 21 is to make patient safety the uppermost priority.

[Jo Churchill]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. We are in completely unusual times: I get to respond to his amendments before he has actually spoken to them himself, but we will crack on.

I recognise that the hon. Gentleman said at the time that he wished to return to these issues during the proceedings and I was expecting him to do so. We agree that patient outcomes and patient safety are matters that we would expect the House to consider very seriously.

Amendments 21, 22 and 23 all seek to establish a hierarchy of considerations applied by the Secretary of State or the appropriate authority when making regulations under the Bill, making safety the primary consideration. It is important to say at the outset that there is a consensus on both sides of the House on patient safety. It matters to us as individuals and as MPs representing our constituents, who rightly wish to know that their safety and their animals’ safety is of uppermost importance when we look to make regulatory change.

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Although I am entirely sympathetic to the concerns of the hon. Member for St Helens South and Whiston, I reassure Members that the current legislation provides extensive safeguards to ensure the ethical and appropriate use of human tissues in medicines and medicinal products. Equally, although I am sympathetic to the hon. Member’s intentions, I do not believe that the amendment would have the intended effect. I look forward to hearing further contributions from hon. Members.

[Alex Norris]

It is a pleasure to resume proceedings on the Bill. The exchanges in Committee were of a high quality in both content and tone, and I look forward to more of the same afternoon. I was proud to take the lead for the Opposition in Committee, as I am during the remaining stages of the Bill, and I thank my predecessor in the early rounds, my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson).

Let me turn to new clause 1. I am so pleased to see the Government introduce what we spoke of in Committee as a device registry, which is now called the information centre. Bad medicines and devices cause exceptional harm. The noble Baroness Cumberlege is looking at the impact of three of these: Primados, sodium valproate and surgical mesh. I pay tribute to the campaigners and their allies in this place for all their work to ensure that those who are suffering, or who have suffered, are not forgotten. Clearly there have been devices that, knowing what we know now, we would not have used. There is a risk of similar things happening in the future, and it is a risk that we cannot fully mitigate, so an information centre will at least put us in the strongest possible position to react quickly and clearly.

I am personally grateful to the Minister for the level of engagement from her and the Government in general. I and my colleagues in the other place are committed to continuing to develop the idea. I know that the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford)—who will be watching proceedings, and whose expertise and creativity are missed—is ready to do the same. I can tell from my inbox that there is considerable interest in the sector in making this work, and I hope the Minister will commit to full consultation with it.