Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 10 December 2025 to Question 97685, whether any additional commitments have been made by the UK in relation to UK-US agreement on pharmaceutical in addition to the increased spending on innovative medicines and the cap on VPAG rates.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has secured a zero percent tariff on all pharmaceuticals exported to the US - the lowest rate offered to any country. We have also secured preferential terms for the UK’s medical technology exports for three years, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technologies.
This agreement was supported by the government’s commitment to investing 25% more in new innovative medicines – the first major increase in over two decades – which will support improved access to new medicines for NHS patients.
Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing. We will share more information when we are able to.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2025 to Question 97256, what his planned timeframe is for the further work to finalise underpinning details to be completed.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has secured a zero percent tariff on all pharmaceuticals exported to the US - the lowest rate offered to any country. We have also secured preferential terms for the UK’s medical technology exports for three years, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technologies.
This agreement was supported by the government’s commitment to investing 25% more in new innovative medicines – the first major increase in over two decades – which will support improved access to new medicines for NHS patients.
Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing. We will share more information when we are able to.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will publish the full legal texts establishing the MFN mitigations with the US.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has secured a zero percent tariff on all pharmaceuticals exported to the US - the lowest rate offered to any country. We have also secured preferential terms for the UK’s medical technology exports for three years, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technologies.
This agreement was supported by the government’s commitment to investing 25% more in new innovative medicines – the first major increase in over two decades – which will support improved access to new medicines for NHS patients.
Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing. We will share more information when we are able to.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what mechanisms within the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal will ensure that pharmaceutical products launched in the UK with a lower price than in the US will not trigger Most Favoured Nation rebates.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have secured the first and only deal with the US that delivers zero percent tariffs on pharmaceutical products – the lowest rate offered to any country.
It delivers mitigations on the US’ ‘Most Favoured Nation’ policy and preferential terms for UK medtech exports – helping expand access to innovative treatments for patients and driving crucial investment in the UK.
The UK and the US have confirmed the headline terms of this deal. Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the US Trade Representative's press release entitled U.S. Government Announces Agreement in Principle with the United Kingdom on Pharmaceutical Pricing, published on 1 December 2025, what the other commitments referred to are.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As set out by the Secretary of State in his written statement to Parliament on 2 December, we have secured a zero percent tariff on all pharmaceuticals exported to the US - the lowest rate offered to any country. The UK has also secured preferential terms for the UK’s medical technology exports for three years, meaning no additional new tariffs on medical technologies.
This agreement was supported by the government’s commitment to investing 25% more in new innovative medicines – the first major increase in over two decades – which will support improved access to new medicines for NHS patients.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, which Department is responsible for monitoring of pharmaceutical provisions within the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal; and whether he plans to update Parliament on those provisions.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
DBT Secretary of State made a written statement to Parliament on 2 December.
This deal is the first and only agreement with the US that secures zero percent tariffs on pharmaceutical products – the lowest rate offered to any country. It delivers mitigations on the US’ ‘Most Favoured Nation’ policy and preferential terms for UK medtech exports – helping expand access to innovative treatments for patients and driving crucial investment in the UK.
The Department for Business and Trade remains the lead department for EPD negotiations.
There will be further work to finalise underpinning details.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what legal instrument establishes Most Favoured Nation mitigations in the deal with the US on pharmaceuticals.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have secured the first and only deal with the US that delivers zero percent tariffs on pharmaceutical products – the lowest rate offered to any country.
It delivers mitigations on the US’ ‘Most Favoured Nation’ policy and preferential terms for UK medtech exports – helping expand access to innovative treatments for patients and driving crucial investment in the UK.
The UK and the US have confirmed the headline terms of this deal. Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the mitigations are under the US Most Favoured Nation drug pricing initiative as referred to in the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The US has committed to ensuring that access to medicines and launches of new innovative medicines in the UK are not inadvertently impacted by the US’s ‘Most Favoured Nation’ policy, thereby reducing the risk to the UK where the NHS has managed to secure lower prices for medicines.
Further work to finalise underpinning details is ongoing.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to increase interoperability and competitiveness in the domestic cloud market following recent widespread outages caused by dominant providers in the industry.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In July 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on the UK cloud market. The key recommendation was for the CMA Board to prioritise commencing investigations under the digital markets regime and to consider designating the two largest providers —Microsoft and AWS — with strategic market status in relation to cloud services. The CMA is independent of Government and any decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations are for the CMA Board.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment with the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the potential merits of creating a dedicated scale-up investment scheme.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Chancellor and Secretary of State wrote on 20 October to the British Business Bank, setting the Bank’s strategic priorities over the next five years. These include an objective to “support our most promising businesses in the Industrial Strategy priority sectors to scale and stay here.”
The letter notes “Through a two-thirds increase in its annual investments, the Bank will crowd in tens of billions of pounds of private capital with a particular focus on ensuring that our most promising scale-up businesses can access the capital they need to realise their ambitions here in the UK.”
The full text is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-strategic-priorities-to-the-british-business-bank