Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps he has taken in negotiations on the UK leaving the EU to promote mutual access to medicines and drugs.

The UK is proposing a UK-EU free trade area, underpinned by a common rulebook. For industrial goods, including medicines, it would cover rules that set requirements for placing a product on the market. It would also feature bespoke provisions for human and animal medicines which reflect their unique status, and would be supplemented by continued UK participation in the European Medicines Agency. We look forward to continuing our negotiations with the EU on this issue.

In the unlikely event that it is not possible to reach a mutually satisfactory deal with the EU, the Department of Health and Social Care has already set outs its plans in technical notices to ensure that patients can continue to access medicines, including recognising batch-testing carried out in the EU.