Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment she has made of trends in the total number of medicine shortages recorded by her Department in January (a) 2021, (b) 2022, (c) 2023 and (d) 2024.

There are around 14,000 licensed medicines, and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. However, the medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex and global, and supply disruption is a common issue which affects countries all around the world.

The Department’s medicine Discontinuations and Shortages portal has been collecting notifications from suppliers of potential supply issues since October 2020, and shows that there were approximately:

- 90 supply issue notifications in January 2021;

- 110 supply issue notifications in January 2022;

- 170 supply issue notifications in January 2023; and

- 160 supply issue notifications in January 2024.

Although reporting does vary each month, annual notifications have remained fairly stable at approximately 1,600 supply issue notifications in 2022 and 2023. It is important to note that not all supply issue notifications will lead to a medicine shortage.