Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2023 to Question 149488 on Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency: Staff, for what reason staffing levels fell between June 2021 and December 2022; and whether his Department plans to take steps to increase staffing capacity.

Staffing levels at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) fell between June 2021 and December 2022 due to the ‘One Agency’ Transformation Programme as detailed in the MHRA’s Delivery Plan 2021-2023. During this transformation, the MHRA prioritised filling vacancies with contingent resources until the conclusion of the organisational change element of the transformation. This decision was made in order to minimise impact on Civil Servant roles. Since then, the MHRA have been successfully recruiting to the new structure.