Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the cost-effectiveness of using (a) drones and (b) traditional delivery methods for medical logistics.

The Government is committed to innovation in drones and other growth sectors, and work is ongoing across the Government, including between the Department and the Civil Aviation Authority, to support the safe and effective introduction of drones into medical logistics. Further information on the Government’s support for drones is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-20-million-to-help-drones-and-flying-taxis-take-to-uk-skies

Last year, the Department of Health and Social Care, working in collaboration with the Department for Transport, Innovate UK, and UK Research and Innovation, supported five pilot projects, allocating them a total of £500,000, to explore the use of drones in the National Health Service. Given the potential of drones to improve how the NHS delivers patient care, the Department of Health and Social Care is supportive of trials that explore the use of drones in medical logistics. Recent drone trials in the NHS have included pathology deliveries in Cornwall, blood deliveries in London, and the transport of chemotherapy to the Isle of Wight, where drone use reduced journey times from four hours by road and sea to a 30-minute flight.

The Department of Health and Social Care continuously reviews the available evidence surrounding the use of drones in medical logistics and is supportive of new trials to further build this evidence base.