Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a Medicines Shortages Task Force.

While there are no plans to establish a Medicines Shortages Task Force, there is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. They work closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise.

The resilience of United Kingdom’s supply chains is a key priority, and we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues, and avoid shortages for patients. The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. However, medicine shortages are a complex and global issue and everyone in the supply chain has a role to play in addressing them, as any action will require a collaborative approach.

There are approximately 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the UK, and while most are in good supply, there can sometimes be supply issues with a limited number of medicines. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the UK, as well as the other countries around the world. High-profile medicine supply issues have been global in their nature.