Member

I note that, in this space, there are a number of all-voluntary actions, such as the NIHR’s carbon reduction guidelines, the UK CRC monitoring group’s green monitoring guidance and the UKTMN guide to efficient local management, but are the Government considering putting some of these environmental steps on a statutory basis, rather than simply relying on voluntary efforts? I do not think that much work is being done in this area, but the noble Baroness will be aware that I have done a great deal of work on the environmental impacts of human medicines in the environment. That is in the context of antimicrobial resistance and more broadly in terms of environmental impacts. Particularly in Sweden, there is a real drive towards encouraging looking at the environmental impacts of medicines while they are being developed, so that we can look to design medicines, at the clinical trial stage, that have a minimal environmental impact.