Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on tackling hormonal replacement therapy shortages.

We have accepted and are taking forward the recommendations of the HRT Supply Taskforce, which was temporarily established to explore what could be done to address hormone replacement therapy (HRT) supply issues in the short and long-term. A key recommendation was to continue the dialogue with industry and we are doing that through regular meetings with individual suppliers as well as holding quarterly roundtables with manufacturers, wholesalers and community pharmacist representatives to monitor progress and agree what more needs to be done to boost production.

Access to high-demand products has improved since actions have been taken by industry with our support, as well as the issuance of Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) for some HRT products facing supply issues, to limit dispensing to three months’ supply to even out distribution and allow specified alternative products to be supplied, as necessary.

21 SSPs for HRT products have been issued since April 2022. The majority of these have been withdrawn as supply issues have been resolved, and only five SSPs remain in place.