§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to establish a centrally- held record of suspected adverse reactions among children to medicines. [147772]
§ Ms Stuart[holding answer 29 January 2001]: The Medicines Control Agency and its independent scientific expert advisory committee, the Committee on Safety of Medicines, have responsibility for monitoring the safety of medicines in the United Kingdom.
One of the key data sources used in monitoring is the yellow card scheme. This scheme receives spontaneous reports of suspected adverse drug reactions, including those in children, from doctors, dentists, coroners and pharmacists. All reports are entered on the adverse drug reactions on line information tracking database maintained by the MCA.