Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the supply of Creon.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is in regular discussion with the supplier of Creon on the latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken to mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of Creon for 2025 for the UK. We continue to work with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also worked with specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.
In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers; if authorised these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has plans to take steps to help lower the price of healthy food.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Steps to improve the affordability, availability, and accessibility of healthy foods are being considered as part of both the Child Poverty Strategy, due to be published in spring, as well as the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs-led Food Strategy, for which further updates will be released in due course.
The Government is committed to increasing access to healthy foods for vulnerable populations by rolling out free breakfast clubs at all primary schools. This also supports free school meals, where under current programmes, 2.1 million of the most disadvantaged school pupils are registered to receive benefits-related free school meals, and a further 90,000 students in further education receive free lunches on the basis of low family income. Also, approximately 1.3 million infant pupils in reception, year one and year two, receive free lunches as part of the universal infant free school meals policy.
We also have schemes to support those on low incomes such as Healthy Start, which reached over 354,000 vulnerable people in December 2024. Healthy Start supports a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households by providing vouchers for fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries also have access to free Healthy Start vitamins for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and children aged under four years old.