Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 11:08 am on 1 July 2020.
I thank Rhianon Passmore for that important question. She's right to point to the challenges that there are in securing effective supplies of medicines. There is increased demand for medicines around the globe, but there has been falling production capacity because India and China, where many medicines are produced, have had to stand back from production because of the impact of coronavirus in their own countries. The continuity of supply of medicines is a reserved matter, it isn't a matter that is devolved to Wales, but we have been working hard with the other four nations to make sure that there are plans in place to understand demand, to allocate available stock, to increase supply where required.
We face, as I know Rhianon Passmore will know, the additional difficulty of leaving the European Union without a proper deal. Ninety per cent of these medicines come into the United Kingdom across the short strait between Calais and Dover. If there were to be disruption to those supplies, the UK Government previously planned to rely on air freight, but air freight isn't moving in the COVID crisis. So, there are real issues arising from coronavirus that we are all grappling with, but there are avoidable difficulties that are looming on the horizon as well. And as the body responsible for continuity of supply of medicines, it's really incumbent on the UK Government not to add to the difficulties we are already facing and the challenges that coronavirus itself has produced.