Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of (a) Atorvastatin and (b) Omeprazole through the NHS.

We are aware of the supply issues affecting a supplier of atorvastatin tablets. We have worked with alternative suppliers to confirm that their supplies remain available, whilst we continue to work with the affected supplier to ensure that action is taken to resolve the issues they are having as quickly as possible. We are not aware of any supply issues with omeprazole.

We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be. While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise. We work with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages, and ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when supply issues arise. If any patient is concerned about their treatment, they should discuss this with their clinician at the earliest opportunity.