Draft Medical Devices (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2026

Tom Collins Excerpts

Wednesday 21st January 2026 General Committees

[Tom Collins (Worcester) (Lab)]

I am very pleased that the Government have taken this approach of listening carefully, responding and trying to build a solution that is manageable and predictable, with a phased transition. As an engineer, I know that safety of products is absolutely paramount. Features such as post-market surveillance are incredibly important, along with the rest of the good regulation system. I am therefore pleased that the Government have taken this seriously, with careful thought and while ensuring that, primarily, patients remain safe.

I will raise one specific case with particularly significant implications for patients. People who rely on continuous insulin therapy, such as those with type 1 diabetes, depend on devices—insulin pumps, primarily—to live their daily lives. Their interaction with the pump is frequent—the relationship is deep—and the device plays a significant role in their life. People will often keep an insulin pump for a number of years, becoming very familiar with its operation. It is important to note that such devices are increasing in sophistication.

In recent years, we have seen some incredible advances in technology, such as continuous glucose monitoring, and there are now more and more pumps on the market with closed-loop control, where the delivery of insulin responds in real time to the patient’s blood glucose level. That has been a transformative technological step forward, but it puts a lot more sophistication into the devices and requires a lot more integration with other devices, such as the CGM devices. That means that patient’s relationship with the pump gets even more sophisticated and deep, and their ability to manage a healthy lifestyle depends critically on the device and their relationship with it. Increasingly, too, patients are dependent on an online platform and a continuous service agreement to maintain the use of the systems and their integrations.

My concern is that if we now introduce a way for a registration to expire early, or for its maintenance not to be renewed, that could create a sense of insecurity or some practical insecurities for patients with insulin pumps. Despite the fact that for an individual medical device, the fees are indeed modest—especially when put in context—we can also imagine situations in which unscrupulous manufacturers might decide that withdrawing a product early suits their product road map and their profit margins. It is important that patients understand that they are safe, that we have mitigated such risks, that patients have control over when and how they change their pump technology, and that it will not be taken away from them for any reason, but in particular for commercial reasons outside their control.

I am confident that the risks can be managed and mitigated, alongside the draft regulations as they into effect, working with the NHS. I am very grateful for the open and collaborative response that I have had from the Minister and the Government up to now on this topic. I put it on the record that it is important that we investigate the potential impacts on this particularly vulnerable group of users, to ensure that they are not compromised or put at a disadvantage as we introduce these important and valuable regulations.