Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the speech by the Foreign Secretary on 14 February, which provisions in the current regulatory framework of the EU inhibit the development of new stem cell technology in the UK.

Provisions in the current regulatory framework of the European Union do not specifically inhibit our present requirements for the development of new stem cell technology.

The United Kingdom and the EU start from a position of close regulatory alignment. As part of exit negotiations, the UK Government will discuss with the EU and Member States on how best to continue cooperation in the field of research, including clinical trials, medicines and medical devices, and data sharing, to ensure patient safety and public health.

As my Rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister stated in her speech on our future economic partnership with the European Union last Friday, the UK will need to make a strong commitment that its regulatory standards will remain as high as the EU’s. That commitment, in practice, will mean that UK and EU regulatory standards will remain substantially similar in the future. Our default is that UK law may not necessarily be identical to EU law, but it should achieve the same outcomes.

As my Rt. hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have stated previously, we have three principles which will help us rise to the challenge of developing a new regulatory system post Brexit:

- patients should not be disadvantaged;

- innovators should be able to get their products into the UK market as quickly and simply as possible; and

- the UK continues to play a leading role promoting public health.