§ Mr. Hayesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will clarify the guidelines published with the Medicines (Exemption From Licences) (Importation) Order 1984 requiring all future imports of drugs to be subject to proper United Kingdom product licences to make explicitly clear that labelling is to be printed in English; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWhen I announced plans to establish a licensing system for imported medicines in April this year, we issued a Medicines Act leaflet titled "Notes on applications for product licences (parallel importing)". Copies are in the Library. These guidelines are intended mainly for importers and set out, amongst other things, the main provisions of the Medicines (Labelling) Regulations as they apply to imported products, including the requirement that labels must be in English. This point has been made in a number of other publications and we have no reason to believe that importers and retail chemists are in any doubt about this requirement. In the circumstances we do not think that any further clarification is necessary at this stage.