My Lords, in contributing to the first day in Committee on this Bill, I draw the attention of noble Lords to my registered interests, in particular to those as a professor of surgery at University College London and as the chairman of UCLPartners.
I support Amendments 50, 67 and 115 tabled in the name of my noble friend Lord Patel, to which I have added my name. The point has been well made by my noble friend that the ecosystem for the delivery of healthcare in our country and therefore the use of medicinal products, medical devices and veterinary medicines is a complex one that is attended by substantial legislation, much of which has been brought into force as a result of the European Communities Act 1972. It is therefore absolutely right, to echo a point made previously by the Minister, that there is a need for this Bill to ensure that such regulation can continue, so that we can continue to have a safe and effective healthcare system and take advantage of the essential requirement to avail ourselves of medicinal products and medical devices.
There is surely also an absolute obligation to ensure that regulation should avoid adding to the complexity that already exists. For those who have to labour under these regulations and ensure that they can present innovation and advances to benefit our fellow citizens within the context of the regulations, we should always be working to simplify them.
In this regard, we are all conscious of the fact that many different types of regulations touch on the healthcare system. There are those that pertain to ethics, and those that deal with the function and delivery of ethics committees and the evaluation of intervention at a local and national level. We have regulations that deal with the adoption and evaluation of innovation within the context of the MHRA, and with the evaluation of
intervention and innovation pertaining to NICE. We have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Patel, about the medical device regulations enacted in 2002, which codify and implement various EU directives in this matter, and the substantial amendment attending medical device regulations in terms of the legislation passed as part of EU exit regulations in 2019.
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The reality is that these complex regulations are dependent upon each other. For any individual wishing to course this landscape, they will have to be able to read different regulations with regard to each other because each ultimately relies upon and refers to other elements of the regulatory framework. Therefore, it seems intuitive that at this time, when we are forced to look at the landscape of regulation for medicinal products for human use, for medical devices and for veterinary medicinal products, we take the opportunity to properly consolidate regulation. In that way, we can have a contemporary, well-designed framework of regulation for medicines and medical devices which is thought through, builds upon what we have established over the past 40 years, deals with inconsistencies and allows us to come together with a framework that is meaningful and protective of public health and the safety of patients—providing the opportunity for those wishing to bring innovation to our country to do so understanding the regulatory obligations clearly—and that ensures that members of the public can understand the legislation that is in place to protect them and their interests.
Therefore, I strongly urge Her Majesty’s Government to consider these amendments seriously. A three-year timeframe seems a perfectly reasonable one in which to move towards consolidated legislation. In addition to all the benefits that I have already laid out, there is an additional benefit: ultimately, this Parliament should be working towards improving legislation and the context in which it is presented to our fellow citizens. This is an ideal opportunity to address a vital area that touches on the lives of every citizen and to deal effectively with matters that have built up over a long period and do not necessarily sit well together, through the opportunities presented to us by coming out of the European Union and, therefore, the terms of the European Communities Act and all that has been enacted and codified as a result.