Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Office for Life Sciences Competitiveness Indicators published in May 2018, what the reasons are for the reduction in the basic pharmaceuticals and pharmaceuticals products workforce between 2012 and 2016.

The Competitiveness Indicators published by the Office for Life Sciences show that the number of people employed in the sector in the United Kingdom and other countries has fluctuated from year to year between 2007 and 2016. The figures published in this report are based on those collected by Eurostat which, in order to allow a consistent comparison between countries over time, do not capture the whole of the life sciences sector as it has evolved in recent years. The Government therefore commissions an additional ‘Strength and Opportunity’ report each year to collect more comprehensive figures on employment across the whole of the life sciences sector. The latest report published shows that employment rose from 113,400 in 2016 to 119,000 in 2017.

The ‘Strength and Opportunity’ report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bioscience-and-health-technology-database-annual-report-2017