Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has made to ensure that there are adequate supplies of anaesthetics to support local NHS services (a) during the covid-19 outbreak and (b) after the end of the transition period.

As part of our concerted national efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are doing everything we can to ensure patients continue to access safe and effective medicines, including anaesthetics. The Department is working closely with the pharmaceutical industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to help ensure patients can access the medicines they need, and precautions are in place to reduce the likelihood of future shortages.

The United Kingdom is now in a Transition Period until 31 December 2020 after leaving the European Union on 31 January on the basis of a deal. The issue that now faces both us and the EU is what kind of trading relationship, and other forms of cooperation, we will have in future. During this Transition Period, it remains our objective to negotiate a future relationship with the EU and in our respective published negotiating documents, we have both stated objectives to reach an agreement on trade in goods. The UK’s published approach sets out how we want to facilitate trade in medicinal products, and support high levels of patient safety.