Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 8 February (HL4994), whether they are aware that the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Blue Guide, published in November 2020, defines advertisements as “any activity which is intended to encourage prescription or supply by healthcare professionals and use of medicines by the general public”; and therefore why the word “safe” has been used by the NHS to promote COVID-19 vaccines over the past two years, such as in a tweet from the NHS on 9 December 2022.

Chapter 6 of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Blue Guide, in which the statement in question is made around the use of the word ‘safe’ in relation to advertising medicines, is about advertising to healthcare professionals, not the general public. The chapter is introduced as guidance on advertising of medicinal products, both prescription only and over-the-counter medicines, targeting healthcare professionals who are “persons qualified to prescribe or supply” medicines as defined in the regulations. Since National Health Service communications on COVID-19 vaccines such as the tweet in question are intended to raise awareness and to answer common questions among the general public rather than promoting any individual product, they lie beyond the scope of this guidance.