Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to research conducted by 38 degrees showing that 571 people in Carshalton and Wallington have type 1 diabetes and rely on daily insulin, what assessment his Department has made of the distribution and number of diabetes sufferers in the UK; and what steps his department has taken to secure undisrupted supply of insulin across the UK in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The number of people registered with diabetes at a general practitioner (GP) practice in 2017-18 by clinical commissioning group and diabetes type in England can be found in the attached table.

The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should help to ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including insulin, once we have left the EU.

As part of our EU exit preparations, we are implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages.

All three suppliers of insulin have publicly stated that they have significantly increased their United Kingdom stockpiles, and have met the Government request that they hold at least six weeks’ worth of extra stock in addition to their usual operational stocks.