Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that (a) baby food, (b) infant formula and (c) infant medication continue to be available during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has introduced new measures to support businesses to keep food, including baby food, supply flowing on to shelves and into homes, such as temporary relaxation of competition laws to allow supermarkets to work together, extending delivery hours to supermarkets and flexing rules on drivers’ hours to allow a higher frequency of deliveries to stores to ensure shelves are being replenished more quickly.

In relation to infant formula, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss MP) on 26 March to Question 30064.

The Department is working closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to help ensure patients can access the medicines they need, including infant medications, and precautions are in place to reduce the likelihood of future shortages. The steps being taken to protect United Kingdom supplies in response to the COVID-19 outbreak were set out in the Department’s press statement issued on 11 February 2020. This statement can be read at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-monitor-impact-of-coronavirus-on-uk-medicine-supply