Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he can provide of the size of the stockpiles of co-careldopa that were available for prescription or purchase in the UK prior to 31 October 2019.

Our priority is to ensure that patients continue to have access to medicines and medical products they need. We are working closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to ensure that precautions are in place to mitigate against future possible risks of medicine shortages, including those linked to COVID-19 and the end of the transition period.

As set out in a letter from the Department to industry of 3 August, we are implementing a multi-layered approach, that involves asking suppliers to get trader ready, reroute their supply chains away from any potential disruption and stockpiling to a target level of six weeks on United Kingdom soil where this is possible. The letter is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-to-medicines-and-medical-products-suppliers-3-august-2020/letter-to-medicine-suppliers-3-august-2020

None of the medicines listed were in the Government’s Essential Medicines Buffer Stock on the dates in question. Neither is it our current intention to include any of those medicines in the COVID-19 supportive medicines stockpile.

With regard to stocks of medicines on UK soil owned and held by suppliers, commercially sensitive information has been shared with the Department to support our potential ‘no deal’ EU exit, end of Transition Period and COVID-19 contingency programmes. For this reason, we cannot share information received from suppliers, including on their UK stock levels, with third parties.