Medicines and Medical Devices Bill — House of Commons, 2021-01-27
Topic: Health
Johanna Peta Churchill (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed This has been a long time coming, and Members from both this House and the other place have been involved. I pay particular tribute to Janet Peck and Susan Morgan, the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall), and their quiet determination to make sure that their challenges were seen and noticed. The Government then took the right decisions in helping them make sure that this does not happen to others. That was the right thing to do The hon. Member for Nottingham North asked me to address two or three points. We plan to respond in full to the report later in 2021. It has been incredibly impactful and has already served to put patient safety at the top of the agenda for the whole health and care system. If it had not been for the covid-19 pandemic, I think we would be discussing little else than patient safety because of the Bill before us. Just as covid-19 impacted on the publication of the report, it has impacted our response time. But I assure the hon. Gentleman that that response will come later in the year The hon. Gentleman also asked about the speed of the appointment of a patient safety commissioner. I very much want the right person. I cannot give a precise time, but I want to underscore the importance of patient safety and our belief that the patient safety commissioner will and must be effective in amplifying the voice of patients and improving patient safety in the use of medicines and medical devices. I hope that the process will not take too long, but we must appoint the right person, who will truly give the right voice On hub and spoke, which the hon. Gentleman and I both agree is so important, there will be a full public consultation. The Government will then report to Parliament, and include a summary of the concerns raised in the public consultation. To ensure that we get the right model to assist pharmacy going forward, we intend to be totally transparent To the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), I can give an unequivocal yes. We have a thriving life science sector in the UK, contributing over £80 billion a year to the economy and over a quarter of a million jobs. We want to ensure that the UK remains an important market for medicines and medical devices, and to bring products to market here As I close, it is perhaps unusual to be pleased that there have been quite so many changes or challenges on a Bill, but I think they have been the right changes and the right challenges. To that end, I thank all hon. Members who have challenged and who have assisted in those changes. I also thank all those who have assisted behind the scenes—the Bill team, my officials and so on. We have arrived at a Bill that I think carries the support of all sides and of both ends of the Parliament, and one where patients, the sector and the public can understand how we do good work and how this Bill will work for them Lords amendment 1 agreed to, with Commons financial privileges waived. Lords amendments 2 and 3 disagreed to. Lords amendments 4 to 10 agreed to. Government amendments (a) to (d) made to Lords amendment 11. Lords amendment 11, as amended, agreed to. Lords amendments 12 to 14 disagreed to. Lords amendments 15 to 21 agreed to. Government amendments (a) to (c) made to Lords amendment 22. Lords amendment 22, as amended, agreed to. Lords amendments 23 to 25 disagreed to. Lords amendments 26 to 29 agreed to. Lords amendment 30 disagreed to. Lords amendment 31 agreed to. Government amendments (a) to (c) made to Lords amendment 32. Lords amendment 32, as amended, agreed to. Lords amendments 33 to 39 agreed to. Lords amendment 40 disagreed to. Lords amendments 41 to 47 agreed to. Lords amendments 48 to 50 disagreed to. Government amendments (a) to (c) made in lieu of Lords amendments 2, 3, 12 to 14, 23 to 25, 30, 40 and 48 to 50. Lords amendments 51 to 56 agreed to, with Commons financial privileges waived in respect of Lords amendment 54.