Northern Ireland Protocol: Drugs

(asked on 21st October 2021) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they agreed to medicines being included within the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland; and what plans they have, if any, to reverse this decision.


Answered by
Lord Frost Portrait
Lord Frost
This question was answered on 1st November 2021

The Protocol was agreed at a particular moment as part of a broader deal that delivered on the referendum result, delivered on the democratic will of the British people and took us out of the EU. We hoped that with sensitive handling the Protocol could be made to work, but we always knew there were risks. That is why we included a number of safeguard provisions.

As we now know, the Protocol was not handled sensitively and we are now in a different world. To move on, we need to find sustainable, long-term arrangements that take proper account of the nature of supplies of medicines as an inherent part of the delivery of national health services. As in our Command Paper of 21 July, we propose to remove medicines from the scope of the Protocol in their entirety.

We are working through the detail of the EU’s proposals received on 13 October. We are now in discussions with the EU on their and our proposals to see if the gaps can be bridged and a solution found which delivers the significant change needed.

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