Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of women affected by shortages of HRT; and if he will make a statement.

We are aware of ongoing supply issues with some HRT preparations 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.

We have been working closely with all suppliers of HRT preparations to maintain overall supply to patients. We have shared relevant information about the supply situation and availability of HRT products with the NHS and are in regular discussions with organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and the British Menopausal Society. We continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure relevant information about the HRT products affected by supply issues and the products that remain available is shared across the NHS on a regular basis. On 4 October, we also added HRT products to the list of medicines that cannot be parallel exported from the United Kingdom market.

The Department does not hold data about the number of women who have been unable to receive HRT because of recent shortages. However, although some HRT products are affected by supply issues, supplies of other alternative HRT products have remained available.

We will continue to work closely with all suppliers and anticipate the supply situation to improve from February 2020.