Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many products were seized by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the United Kingdom Regulatory Agency with responsibility for the regulation of medicinal products (for human use) and medical devices and also acts as the law enforcement authority with statutory powers including rights of entry, inspection and seizure of products.

Medicinal products are not ordinary consumer goods and, consequently, there is strict legislative control on their sale, supply, manufacture and distribution. Medicines that do not comply with regulatory requirements pose potential health risks and once identified, either in the UK or at the UK border, are liable to detention and seizure.

The tables below set out the number of units / doses seized yearly.

Seizures by MHRA on operational activities.

Note: *this figure is year to date

Seizures made on Operation Pangea

Operation Pangea is a global initiative targeting illegal online sales of medical products.

To combine, this represents total seizures of 50,199,806 to date.