Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the supplier of Pethidine medication on increasing availability of that medication in the UK.

There are two suppliers of pethidine 50 milligram tablets and we are aware that both suppliers experienced supply issues during 2020 due to manufacturing difficulties. One of the suppliers now has stock available and does not anticipate any further issues. Supply should be sufficient to cover entire market demand.

The Department has worked closely with both suppliers during this time to try and expedite resupply and communicated the supply issue to the National Health Service in August 2020. During the time where both suppliers were out of stock, we worked with specialist importer companies to source unlicensed pethidine 50 milligram tablets from abroad to ensure patients could continue to access treatment.