Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the efficiency of the (a) storage, (b) procurement and (c) emergency dispensing of antiviral medications for high-risk patients.

Medicines, including antivirals, are stored in accordance with Good Distribution Practice, which is regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. These will typically be held by medicine wholesalers who sell them on to community pharmacies and hospital pharmacies. Individual pharmacies will have their own procurement strategies. They should plan and manage stocks in line with demand, in order to ensure medicines are available to patients when needed.