Written Question

Chemicals: Regulation

Tuesday 9th April 2024

Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for incorporating into pharmaceutical, pesticide and other chemical regulation consideration of impacts on human, animal, plant and soil microbiomes.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) operates a robust programme of regulating and monitoring medicines to ensure patients have access to safe and effective medicines. While the microbiome is still an evolving field, the MHRA is working to further our understanding on the impact of pharmaceuticals on the microbiome. Experts in MHRA are leading on international efforts to improve understanding of this area, for example through the development of World Health Organisation reference reagents for the microbiome.

The potential impact of a chemical on plant health, including soil microbiomes is already considered, as appropriate, as part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s robust risk assessment process for pesticides and for biocides.

The legislation around veterinary medicines makes it clear that when considering the authorisation of antimicrobial substances for use in animals, there should be consideration of the impacts on the human, target animal, and environmental microbiomes, including plants and soils.

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Non-Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Government Office for Science

Mar. 27 2024

Source Page: Ultra-processed food (UPFs)
Document: Ultra-Processed Food - PDF (PDF)

Found: A high emulsifier dosage study in mouse models investigated changes in the microbiome and epithelial

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Grand Committee
Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
Committee stage - Wed 27 Mar 2024
Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Mentions:
1: Lord Clement-Jones (LD - Life peer) involvement”, even if there was no active review by a human decision-maker. - Speech Link
2: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green - Life peer) Horsham.I apologise that I was not with the Committee earlier today, but I was chairing a meeting about the microbiome - Speech Link

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Select Committee

King’s College London, and University of Oxford

Oral Evidence Feb. 29 2024

Inquiry: Food, Diet and Obesity
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Food, Diet and Obesity Committee

Found: outcomes, and eating more or less of them as part of a whole balanced diet will have an impact on human

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Non-Departmental Publication (News and Communications)
Government Chemist

Jun. 28 2023

Source Page: The 2023 Government Chemist Conference presentations
Document: Food safety foresight: FAO’s perspective on emerging issues– Vittorio Fattori (PDF)

Found: Microbiome is the collection of their genetic materials.

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Select Committee

Kings College London, and University College London

Oral Evidence Mar. 18 2024

Inquiry: Preterm Birth
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Preterm Birth Committee

Found: would say, going back to the question of whether you can get to the metric of no smoking, is that human

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Non-Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Environment Agency

Oct. 26 2023

Source Page: Antimicrobial resistance surveillance strategies within wild flora and fauna of England
Document: Antimicrobial resistance surveillance strategies within wild flora and fauna of England - report (PDF)

Found: Known pathogen (animal, human or plant). 2. Known member of a host -associated microbiome. 3.

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Lords Chamber
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Species Management and ELMS - Thu 25 Jan 2024
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Mentions:
1: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green - Life peer) We have started to realise the extent to which we are losing the biodiversity of the microbiome of the - Speech Link
2: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD - Life peer) Without this miracle, we simply could not survive as a human population. - Speech Link

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Select Committee

CPI

PHA0047 - The antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages

Written Evidence May. 17 2023

Inquiry: The antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Science, Innovation and Technology Committee

Found: manufacturing infrastructure for phage was highlighted in the recently published Innovate UK-KTN report ‘Human

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