PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Commission On Human Medicines (22 June 2023)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 187628 on Commission on Human Medicines, and with reference to the Summary of the Commission on Human Medicines Meeting held between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020, when (a) a final decision on the issue under consideration at that meeting will be taken and (b) information withheld from the meeting summary under section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will be released.

Asked by:
Esther McVey (Conservative)

Multiple Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) meetings were held in the specified period, so further information is required for question A. The role of CHM is to provide the Licensing Authority with independent advice on the safety, efficacy and quality of medicinal products. It is the role of the Licensing Authority, on behalf of Secretary of State, to take a final decision to grant a marketing authorisation for a medicinal product. Following this decision a Public Assessment Report (PAR), containing the non-confidential parts of the MHRA’s assessment, is published on the MHRA website.

CHM discuss high number of products and applications at each of their meetings. Information withheld under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is withheld because the information is either (1) a trade secret; (2) would likely prejudice the commercial interests of any legal person. There is no time limit after which this information can be released, moreover, any consideration of its release would be made by consideration of whether the public interest in releasing outweighs any commercial harm that could be caused by its release. More information on Section 43 of the FOI Act is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Answered by:
Will Quince (Conservative)
29 June 2023