Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the report entitled, Exiting the EU: supplying the health and social care sectors, published by the National Audit Office in September 2019.

On 27 September the National Audit Office published a report on the readiness of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit preparations for the supply of medicines and medical products. The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for EU exit. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the supply of medicines and medical products when we leave the EU on 31 October.

As the NAO recognises, the Department, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers have mounted an unprecedented response in preparing for EU Exit, with substantial stockpiles of medicines, which are increasing by the day. Combined with other measures in the Department’s multi-layered approach, including new transport routes coming online shortly, we are confident that we can help ensure that patients continue to receive the highest quality of care in the same way they do now.