Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the resilience of international supply chains for pharmaceuticals procured by the NHS; and what steps he is taking to reduce reliance on imports for essential medicines.

Medical supply chains are complex, global, and highly regulated, making them vulnerable to a variety of shocks. The Government actively monitors emerging global and domestic threats to supply resilience and has established processes in place to manage disruption across the health and social care sector.

The Government is enhancing domestic manufacturing capability alongside strengthening international partnerships and collaboration on medical supply chains, such as through membership of the European Union’s Critical Medicines Alliance. This aims to identify vulnerabilities in critical medicine supply chains and leverage members’ expertise and resources to identify solutions to build long-term resilience and to help ensure that patients have access to the medical goods they need. The United Kingdom’s life sciences sector is key to driving long-term, sustainable, and resilient growth nationwide and will be a priority of the upcoming Industrial Strategy, alongside an up to £520 million commitment to the Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund to support UK-wide investment in human medicines, medical diagnostics, and medical technology products.

This includes the National Supply Disruption Response that acts as a single point of contact when the health and care system, including the medical supply industry, requires support to maintain the supply of medical products, including for products imported to the UK.