Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if the Government will commission an independent assessment of the potential impact of a UK-India free trade agreement on global access to medicines.

We have always been clear that the NHS, its services, and the cost of medicines are not on the table in our free trade negotiations.

When a signed treaty text is laid in Parliament, it will be accompanied by an Explanatory Memorandum and the Government will publish an independently scrutinised impact assessment. The impact assessment will set out the updated potential long-run impacts of the FTA on UK GDP, sectors, and employment as well as the potential implications for the UK’s nations and English regions. Specific assessments will not be provided on the global impacts for each sector as a result of the deal.