Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many incidences of medication error have been reported since 2017.

From 2017 to 7 June 2022, 1,309,128 medication-related incidents have been reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). Patient safety events which occur in healthcare, including incidences of medication error, are voluntarily reported by health and care staff through the NRLS and its successor, the national Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service. The LFPSE service is also managed by NHS England and is currently being deployed.

Information is analysed to allow effective learning from events and advance patient safety. NHS England reviews emerging patient safety risks and can take action where it finds cases of preventable harm, such as issuing National Patient Safety Alerts to the health system through the Central Alerting System.