Brexit: Insulin Supplies

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Thursday 24th January 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor]

Please—the Government take this issue very seriously and have put in place proper contingency plans. I am assured, as a diabetic, that those plans are suitable.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

As the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, says, all analogue synthetic human insulin comes from outside the UK. The Government have already warned us that ports such as Dover and Folkestone will have greatly reduced capacity for at least six months if we crash out of the EU, and the stockpiles mentioned by the Minister will last six weeks—certainly not six months. In the circumstances of a looming shortage of life-saving medication, how do the Government plan to ration insulin? How will they decide who gets it and who does not?