The Supply of Pharmaceutical Drugs

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 21 November 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:58, 21 November 2018

There are real practical conversations going on between every health department from every nation within the UK, and on this, actually, it's an issue where I and the Scottish health secretary have written to Matt Hancock seeking a meeting to try and put some of the politics aside and to have a practical, face-to-face conversation about what each of us can do. I've yet to have a positive response to the joint offer of a meeting, but I think it would be sensible for Ministers who have responsibility for health departments to have that conversation on a very practical level, because the challenge comes in the fact that the UK Government is acting for the UK in having this conversation on the supply of medicines and products with a limited shelf life. Now, I'm not in control of the conversation with European Union partners. I don't believe they want to punish the UK at all, but there must be some common sense about our arrangements with the rest of the European Union to make sure that that supply is not interrupted. But I can't give you the reassurance you seek that all is necessarily going to be well. I can give you the reassurance that this Government is a willing and genuine partner in looking for an answer, should the United Kingdom leave without satisfactory arrangements in other areas.