Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Spring Budget of 15 March commitment that the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will explore partnerships with trusted international agencies to provide rapid approvals for medicines and technologies that have received their approval from 2024, whether such approvals will apply in Northern Ireland; if so under what legal provisions; and how this complies with the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Under the Windsor Framework, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s international recognition framework, alongside wider regulatory processes for novel medicines, will apply across the United Kingdom. For the transitional period until then, novel medicines will continue to be supplied to Northern Ireland under existing arrangements. Medical technologies will continue to be supplied to Northern Ireland as they are now.