Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, If he will make an assessment of the adequacy of his Department's processes for (a) forecasting, (b) alerting and (c) responding to medicine shortages.

Medicine supply chains are complex, global and highly regulated and there are a number of reasons why supply can be disrupted – many of which are not specific to the United Kingdom and are outside of government control. This includes manufacturing difficulties, access to raw materials, sudden demand spikes or distribution issues, and regulatory issues.

The resilience of UK supply chains is a key priority, and we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages. In August, the government published a policy paper, ‘Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines’, which provides transparency of the supply chains we rely on, the actions we take to protect patients from medicines shortages when they occur, and the steps the Department and NHS England are taking to enhance resilience in our supply chains. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver these actions.