Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Second Reading of the Off-patent Drugs Bill on 7 November 2014, Official Report, column 1120, in what ways the Secretary of State's proposed duties in the Bill could create a conflict of interest; and what assessment he has made of whether such a conflict could be mitigated by delegating the Secretary of State's duties to a separate body.

The Secretary of State for Health is responsible for the United Kingdom medicines licensing system and therefore for its operation and integrity. If he became a regular applicant for licences there would be a perceived conflict of interest between his role as an applicant competing in the medicines market and his role as an impartial overseer of the system. If he directed another body to make licence applications on his behalf we judge that this could incur similar risks.