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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report in the Lancet First, do no harm: time for a systems approach to address the problem of health-care-derived pharmaceutical pollution, published in December 2022; and what steps, if any, they plan to take regarding its recommendations.

Defra and its agencies, including the Environment Agency, have not yet considered the report in full detail but will do so in due course. We will consider the recommendations in conjunction with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care. Defra has already noted that some of the suggested interventions in the Lancet paper may be relevant to veterinary medicines. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate within Defra is actively considering issues around pharmaceuticals in the environment, and conducts environmental risk assessments for all new veterinary medicines.