§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will undertake not to relax present legislation which restricts the availability of drugs, in the interests of patient safety.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinI do not intend to relax existing legislation in any way which endangers patient safety. It is, however, important to keep the legislation, and the procedures deriving from it, under review to ensure inter alia that development of beneficial new drugs is not unnecessarily impeded. To that end, I have been reviewing the arrangements for controlling clinical trials and expect shortly to consult interested organisations about possible changes.