---

Health Bill

I am happy to try to give a reassurance here. This part of the Bill inserts new sections into the Medicines Act 1968. Section 129(6) of that Act already imposes a statutory requirement for consultation with representative interests before making regulations. By virtue of that section, we already have a statutory obligation to consult interested parties before making regulations under the new powers inserted into the Act by the Bill. However, I am happy to repeat the assurances set out in my letter of 9 March. We intend to continue to work closely with representative interests, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, in developing regulations. We expect to hold wide-ranging informal discussions before moving on to formal consultations in due course. I do not think that I can say any more, other than that we shall be consulting very fully with all interests, both because we are statutorily required to and because we want to.