Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) efficiency and (b) productivity of the MHRA.

The Department and its ministers regularly hold assurance meetings with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to assess its efficiency and productivity. Under the Government, the MHRA has cleared all backlogs, and statutory performance targets are now being met.

As part of the MHRA’s ongoing commitment to greater transparency in service delivery, the agency began publishing monthly performance data externally on clinical trials and medicines licenses in April 2023 and extended this to reflect reporting of performance against all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from March 2025. This enhanced reporting provides detailed insights into progress against KPIs and processing times. It enables stakeholders, customers, and partners to plan with greater certainty by offering clear visibility into the performance of key functions, including licensing and clinical trials applications, inspections, batch release, and safety signals. These improvements support more informed engagement and planning across the sector.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the MHRA will build on this to develop a more pro-innovation approach to regulation, while maintaining safety, ensuring that the United Kingdom remains one of the best places in the world to develop and launch new products, with an international reputation for safety and quality.