Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2022 to Question 104415 on Hormone Replacement Therapy: Shortages, for what reason some serious shortage protocols have been extended into 2023.

In 2022, 17 Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) were issued to mitigate supply issues affecting hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medicines. SSPs can be extended or withdrawn to take account of changing supply situations and 10 of these SSPs have subsequently been withdrawn due to improvements in supply. As the industry ensures there is a long-term, sustainable supply of HRT products to meet demand, we are taking precautionary action by extending some SSPs to improve availability of products still affected by supply issues.