Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the merits of restricting the sale of paracetamol and aspirin to behind the counter to reduce the number of deaths by self-poisoning.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the body responsible for regulating all medicines in the United Kingdom on behalf of health ministers. In 1998, smaller pack sizes were introduced for non-prescription medicines containing paracetamol or aspirin to manage the risk of misuse and overuse. The MHRA continues to monitor the safety in use of non-prescription medicines containing paracetamol and aspirin and will take further action to safeguard public health if necessary.

The National Institute for Health Research, funded by the Department, commissioned research published in 2013, which analysed deaths by poisoning by paracetamol since the restrictions to its sale were introduced in 1998, ‘Long term effect of reduced pack sizes of paracetamol on poisoning deaths and liver transplant activity in England and Wales: interrupted time series analyses’. This is available at the following link:

https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f403