Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which (a) pharmaceutical companies and (b) companies in related fields has his Department entered into non disclosure agreements with in relation to preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal since July 2016.

The Department has signed 52 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in relation to European Union exit. These have been signed with a mixture of trade associations, companies (both pharmaceutical and other) and third sector organisations. The Department routinely signs non-disclosure agreements in order to protect sensitive information, often for commercial reasons or where its disclosure could impact the Department’s relationship with suppliers.

The use of NDAs has been particularly relevant for the Department’s EU exit preparations, which have involved dealing with significant amounts of commercially sensitive data from industry stakeholders. This data has informed key policy decisions and helped the Department assess the robustness of our contingency plans.