Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that veterinary medicine supply via Suitably Qualified Persons will continue to apply in Northern Ireland in the same was as the wider UK from 1 January 2026.

We appreciate that there may be specific issues of concern and that access to an online retailer for pet owners to obtain veterinary medicines for their pets is of great importance. Through our extensive engagement across the supply chain, we are aware of multiple companies who are either already established in Northern Ireland or are planning to set up as online retailers in Northern Ireland. This is expected to ensure medicines remain available through these online channels. We are also working to ensure that the Veterinary Medicine Internal Market Scheme operates in a way that reflects how consumers obtain medicines at present.

Suitably Qualified Persons (SQPs) are unique to the UK, and the Government is committed to supporting them and the vital role they play in supporting the UK’s farming and companion animal sectors.

Continued access to veterinary medicines for Northern Ireland at the end of the grace period is a Government priority. After extensive stakeholder engagement, our current estimate is that 10-15% of products are expected to be discontinued. Many of these authorisations are dormant or sold in very low volumes and we do not anticipate significant animal health or welfare issues as a result of these discontinuations. Our data suggests that the level of discontinuations for products that can be prescribed by SQPs is in line with that overall estimate.

Where there is, or likely to be, a significant animal health issue, and it is appropriate to do so, products under the Veterinary Medicines Health Situation Scheme could be made available for prescription and supply by SQPs. More broadly, the rules for supply by SQPs will not change from 1 January.