Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have, in each of the last five years, (a) moved to roles with pharmaceutical companies or industry-funded bodies and (b) joined the Agency from such organisations; and what safeguards are in place to manage potential conflicts of interest arising from such movement.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) requires all staff to undertake a conflict-of-interest declaration upon joining the agency and then on a yearly basis. All declarations are assessed according to MHRA policy to ensure due consideration and agreement of required mitigations. The MHRA does not routinely record where staff move to when leaving the agency, however all staff are bound by the business appointment rules for crown servants and are required to seek prior agreement if they fall within the specified criteria. Further information on the business appointment rules for crown servants is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-appointment-rules-for-crown-servants/business-appointment-rules-for-crown-servants

In relation to staff joining the agency, the MHRA does not record the information in the manner requested, but a manual review of the records from new joiners between the financial years 2021 to 2026 indicates that 47 staff have declared previous employment in a pharmaceutical or industry funded body. The following table shows a breakdown of the 47 staff who have declared previous employment in a pharmaceutical or industry funded body from 2021/22 to 2025/26, and in total:

It should be noted that this assessment is a best estimate to match within the criteria requested and the number may be subject to change.