Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of regulation for online doctor services.

Online medical services in England are required to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and to meet a set of registration requirements around safety and quality and are further regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for prescribing purposes.

The MHRA is responsible for the regulation of all medicines available in the United Kingdom. There are legal controls on the retail sale, supply and advertising of medicines which are set out in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

The Department monitors the CQC’s financial and operational performance and risks at a general and strategic level through regular formal accountability meetings.