Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on including UK health priorities in future trade negotiations.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for International Trade have worked together at all levels to ensure that United Kingdom health priorities are represented in the UK’s trade policy.

The Government has been consistently clear that protecting the National Health Service is a fundamental principle of our trade policy. The NHS, the price it pays for drugs and its services are not for sale. Indeed, our published objectives for negotiations with the United States and other new trade partners make it clear that we will not agree measures which undermine the Government’s ability to deliver on these commitments.

The Government has been clear that it will uphold the UK’s high levels of public, animal, and plant health. As such, public health issues are being actively considered as part of the Government’s trade policy development.