Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to hold discussions with representatives from the pharmaceutical industry on the findings of the report entitled Healthy Mum, Healthy Baby, Healthy Future published in May 2022.

While there are no plans for any specific discussions, the Department has noted the recommendations made in the report. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency recently completed a public consultation on legislative powers to support diversity in clinical trial populations, including pregnancy and individuals who are breast feeding. The responses are being analysed and the Government’s response will be published later this year.

The Clinical Practice Research Datalink is currently being developed to study the safety of medicines use in pregnancy via a new expanded Pregnancy Register. This includes anonymised data on 24.5 million pregnancy episodes in seven million women. The Registry will increase the ability to study rare exposures and outcomes and improve healthcare advice for women.