Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government has taken to ensure that there will be no disruption to the procurement of medical devices after the UK has left the EU.

The United Kingdom’s priority is to ensure that public procurement continues to function as smoothly as possible, avoiding disruption to public procurement markets for the benefit of suppliers and procurers. The existing scheme of UK procurement rules, which implement the European Union public procurement directives, are preserved under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 when the UK leaves the European Union, with relevant adjustments necessary to ensure legal operability. This will give legal certainty and continuity to businesses, contracting authorities, and employees, on day one of Exit. On 13 September 2018, Cabinet Office published guidance titled ‘Accessing public sector contracts if there’s no Brexit deal’, which can be found on the Cabinet Office website at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accessing-public-sector-contracts-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/accessing-public-sector-contracts-if-theres-no-brexit-deal#before-29-march-2019