Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 11 April (HL6877), in which legislation it states that advertisements which form part of Government campaigns to encourage routine vaccination uptake “sit outside of the scope of United Kingdom advertising regulations”, and how that is consistent with (1) regulation 280 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, and (2) the definition of the promotion of a medicinal product in the MHRA’s Blue Guide as any thing or any activity "designed to promote the prescription, supply, sale or consumption of medicinal products".

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible, on behalf of Health Ministers, for administering the legislation on advertising medicines as set out in Part 14 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, as amended. The relevant definition of an advertisement for a medicine is given in regulation 7. It is the view of the MHRA that materials disseminated by Government bodies in support of a public health campaign are not caught by this definition as they are not ‘designed to promote the prescription, supply, sale or use’ of a specific medicine or medicines. Their purpose is rather to promote public health by encouraging people to seek appropriate medical intervention, in this case uptake of vaccination against COVID-19. On the basis of this view, that Government campaigns are outside the definition outlined in regulation 7, regulation 280 does not apply.