My Lords, this has been a fascinating debate. We all want the UK to be a manufacturing centre for pharmaceuticals and valuable medical devices. The amendments in this group relate largely to the overarching objective of regulations made under the Bill.
It was argued in Committee that the Government needed to be clearer about the intent of the regulations and what the guiding principles would be. I am pleased that they have accepted this, and a number of amendments in this group provide that the appropriate authority’s overarching objective in making regulations must be safeguarding public health.
The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, and I put down an amendment to change “public health” in the government amendment to
“the health and safety of the public”.
That was not an “angels dancing on the head of a pin” moment. Public health could have a very narrow definition in a health and social care context—we think of local government and Public Health England. However, our wording describes the issue that we are discussing. It is much broader than the “public health” definition, which is too narrow. Health and safety should be at the centre of what is used in treatment. The abuse of this was illustrated by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, who gave us perfect examples in her report. Mesh is technically a device and sodium valproate was the medicine. They were both abused, and their use was inappropriate. They hurt and damaged a lot of people, predominantly women, for a very long time—some people, for ever.
Now we have a workable framework in which to put both medicines and medical devices in the context of the health of the public, and that is extremely welcome.
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