Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure transparency in public procurement in relation to the pharmaceutical industry.

All procurements including those from the pharmaceutical industry must follow strict laws and guidelines. The Public Contract Regulations 2015 set out how public procurements should be conducted in order to be compliant, open, fair and transparent. The Procurement Policy Note, PPN 01/23, is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0123-requirements-to-publish-on-contracts-finder

It clearly illustrates how the openness, fairness and transparency requirements must be followed from prior to the procurement starting to after it is concluded.