To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reform the (a) procurement and (b) supply chain of medications to (i) ensure timely availability and (ii) reduce shortages at community pharmacies.

The resilience of UK supply chains is a key priority, and we are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages.

As outlined in our recently published policy paper, ‘Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines’, the Government is committed to building on the important actions already underway across the system to minimise disruption for patients and enhance resilience in our supply chains. The publication includes a number of actions, including:

• consulting on better reporting of supply issues;
• consulting on pharmacist flexibilities to allow pharmacists to supply an alternative if they do not have the exact prescribed item available, under certain circumstances;
• publishing information guides for patients, community pharmacies and general practices about what to do when faced with supply issues; and
• providing shortage information at the point of prescribing in general practice.

We will continue to engage with community pharmacy, industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver these actions.