We regularly receive notifications of discontinuations and possible discontinuations from suppliers, as well as information about shortages and potential shortages caused by a whole variety of reasons and numbers change daily. We are unable to provide this information as it is commercially sensitive.

The Department has well-established procedures to deal with medicines shortages and discontinuations and works with a range of stakeholders to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise. Not all notifications will lead to the discontinuation of a medicine or a shortage in the market.

The Department has made no such assessment.

All testing carried out by National Health Service Test and Trace is free at the point of delivery.

The Government is committed to rapid and accessible testing. We are working with private sector and are increasing our testing capacity, both through current swab testing and new, rapid lateral flow tests to cut the spread of COVID-19 nationwide. Where contracts with commercial partners have been finalised the Department publishes contract award notices online at GOV.UK Contract Finder service.

An evaluation of testing the whole of Liverpool will inform the potential rollout of whole town or city testing to other areas, as part of the Government’s commitment to make mass testing available. Same day testing will involve several different types of technology including lateral flow devices.

A £500 million investment will accelerate the next generation of technologies to support our existing systems and better understand how mass testing could be used.

Our top priorities for testing, as they have been throughout the pandemic, are to allocate testing where it is needed most to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and enable vital health and care services to operate safely.

In the future, in addition to our existing priorities, we will aim to use new testing technologies to test a higher proportion of the population over time, targeted at where it will have the most impact, and use testing to support the economy and wider society to return to a normal way of life.

NHS Test and Trace is currently planning to spend in the region of £75 million which will be directed towards the evaluation and adoption of new technologies to ensure that we use the fullest range of innovations to support our testing policy as it develops.

Alongside this, the Government is working with the life sciences sector on proposals to strengthen the United Kingdom diagnostics industry and how the National Health Service market can make better use of innovative diagnostics.

The United Kingdom Government funds domestic research into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the UK Research and Innovation research councils and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR also supports AMR research for the primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding, as does the Department directly through the Global AMR Innovation Fund. These investments will continue after the end of the transition period. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including AMR. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. It is not usual practice for the NIHR to ring-fence a proportion of its budget for research into particular topics or conditions.

United Kingdom-based companies have played a major role in working with the Department on some of the most challenging healthcare areas of the response to COVID-19. These have included:

- building UK manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) capacity by signing contracts to manufacture over three billion items of PPE with over 30 UK-based companies; and

- at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in March there were more than 8,000 mechanical ventilators in hospitals across the UK. As of the end of July we now have over 30,000 mechanical ventilators available to the National Health Service. 14,679 of these are from new suppliers responding to the Prime Minister’s ventilator challenge and are mostly made in the UK.

The UK National Screening Committee advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of screening and routinely considers new conditions when evidence becomes available or when proposed through its annual call for topics. The annual call runs from September to December and allows members of the public and stakeholders to submit new conditions for the UK National Screening Committee to consider and assess against internationally recognised criteria.

The Government is working with the life sciences sector to strengthen United Kingdom resilience by developing proposals to build a long-term national diagnostics industry, and by exploring how the National Health Service market can make better use of innovative diagnostics.

We have also established the Accelerated Access Collaborative which brings together leaders from across industry, the NHS, regulators and the Government to get innovations, including the best new diagnostics, into the hands of patients and clinicians faster than ever before.

The United Kingdom has one of the most comprehensive antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance systems in the world.

Published studies suggest that the UK has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population than the European Union average of 131 per 100,000.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control annual epidemiological report for 2018 showed that total antibiotic consumption in the UK was 18.8 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 population per day, which was lower than the population-weighted average consumption of 20.1 DDD per 1,000 population per day across the EU and European Economic Area.

As set out in the United Kingdom’s approach to negotiations with the European Union published on 27 February, the UK is ready to discuss how our citizens can be kept safe and benefit from continued international cooperation on health security following the end of the transition period, where it is in our mutual interest. The detail of the UK’s future relationship with the EU on health security is subject to the outcome of the ongoing negotiations. We welcome the discussions we have had so far on the scope of cooperation in this area and welcome continued talks going forwards.

As of 5 May, over 9,000 businesses have contacted the Government with offers of help on supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) which we are now taking forward, with 267 of these relating to the manufacture of PPE for National Health Service and care sectors. These are predominantly United Kingdom-based companies but include a strong representation from multinational companies.

The Department triages all offers to assess their potential to proceed, based upon whether the offer is from a high potential manufacturer who have existing domestic manufacturing capability that can rapidly be re-purposed to support the national effort.

As of 5 May, the Department has entered into contract and placed orders with seven manufacturers to provide PPE products to the NHS and carers, to all regions of the UK. Their volumes will increase in the coming weeks and in addition other suppliers will come on line to supply products.

The breakdown of the United Kingdom’s investment into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and development since 2014 is set out in the following table:

Note:

*Through GAMRIF, push funding into AMR research in development for low-and-middle income countries has also been used to leverage approximately £41 million from other funders.

Independent research, commissioned and funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme, has been conducted on the implementation of the UK five-year AMR Strategy 2013-18, including an assessment of research activity. This evaluation will become publicly available following independent peer review.

The UK is undertaking world-leading work on potential solutions that address pharmaceutical market failure by testing an innovative model for the evaluation and purchase of antimicrobials. For our work to have the full effect, we need other countries to offer similar incentives in their own domestic markets, alongside regional or global market incentives solutions. The UK has taken the lead in lobbying for tangible commitments on market incentives in the 2019 G20 Leaders’ declaration and is working with a number of like-minded countries to advocate for clear, next steps from all G20 members.

Published studies suggest that the United Kingdom has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population while the European Union average is 131 per 100,000.

The UK aims to achieve antimicrobial usage levels as good as the best countries in the world. Modelling best practice at home, sharing our experiences and learning from the successes of other countries is key to our approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

On reviewing the UK’s approach to AMR, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control noted in 2019 that it is an example for other EU/European Economic Area countries to follow.

Published studies suggest that the United Kingdom has a lower incidence of resistant infections at 82 per 100,000 population while the European Union average is 131 per 100,000.

The UK aims to achieve antimicrobial usage levels as good as the best countries in the world. Modelling best practice at home, sharing our experiences and learning from the successes of other countries is key to our approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

On reviewing the UK’s approach to AMR, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control noted in 2019 that it is an example for other EU/European Economic Area countries to follow.

Research into new antibiotics falls within a wider portfolio of research and development to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Since 2014, the United Kingdom Government has invested more than £360 million in AMR research. The United Kingdom Research and Innovation councils support basic science relevant to AMR, including research into new antibiotics. In addition, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Department invests in applied health research to evaluate public health measures, healthcare interventions and health services addressing the use of antimicrobial drugs. This includes research to evaluate strategies to incentivise industry to develop new antibiotics. The NIHR also supports AMR research for the primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding.