Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission an independent inquiry into the causes of shortages of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) medications and products.

The Department is aware that the ongoing supply issues with some hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations are due to a range of issues including manufacturing issues, regulatory issues and problems accessing the raw pharmaceutical ingredient as well as commercial decisions made by some companies to divest these products. Although some HRT products are affected by supply issues, supplies of other alternative HRT products remain available.

We are in regular discussion with all HRT suppliers about the underlying causes behind these issues and are working with them closely to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. We therefore have no plans to commission an independent inquiry.

We anticipate the overall supply situation for HRT products will improve from the end of this month.