Thank you for contacting me about the proposed UK-India free trade agreement and intellectual property on medicines.

I welcome and support negotiations for a free trade agreement with India. I agree though that it is vital that there is no retreat on protecting the National Health Service in our trade deals. I therefore appreciate the concerns you raise.

In response to questions on this issue, the Government has said it is seeking provisions in the deal that “achieve an effective balance between rewarding research and innovation, and protecting wider public interests such as ensuring access to medicines”. It says it will not agree any provisions that would increase the cost of medicines for the NHS, and that the negotiations will not impact on the UK’s access to affordable medicines. 

However, I share your concerns about the leaked draft of the UK’s proposal for the trade deal, and in particular that the proposed terms could make generic manufacturing of medicines more difficult and allow companies to make patents longer lasting, increasing the price of medicines. I can assure you that I will continue to monitor this issue.

More widely, I agree that this demonstrates the need for meaningful transparency and scrutiny of the Government’s trade negotiations. For the country to achieve trade deals that support British business, British values and economic growth, we need proper scrutiny. 

Unfortunately, I believe the Government has failed to ensure that parliamentarians, businesses, non-governmental organisations, sector representatives, devolved Administrations and civic society can scrutinise our trade policy adequately. In contrast to parliaments elsewhere, for example, which have scrutiny opportunities from negotiating mandate to ratification, the Government has done deals with no chance for Parliament, and therefore the people it represents, to have a real say.

I can therefore assure you that I will continue to support calls for the Government to commit to meaningful parliamentary scrutiny of trade negotiations.