Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what links there are (1) legally, (2) administratively, and (3) financially, between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and pharmaceutical companies.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an independent regulator working on a nominal fee for licence applications and regulating the industry. The MHRA is funded predominantly by income from fees for both statutory and non-statutory sales of products and services, which includes working with pharmaceutical companies.

As civil servants, all staff are committed to the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. Additionally, staff are not permitted to have any personal financial connections to pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers.