UK Parliament: Health Committee
Wednesday, 2 November, 2016

The Health Committee invites written submissions on the priorities for health and social care in the negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The evidence submitted to the Committee’s pre-referendum inquiry into the impact of EU membership on health and social care has demonstrated the wide range of areas in which EU membership affects this policy area. The Committee is now seeking views on what the most important issues are to which attention will need to be paid in the withdrawal negotiations; and what outcomes should be sought from them.

The Committee also invites views on what risks and opportunities for health and social care arise from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and how the Government should seek to mitigate the risks, and take advantage of the opportunities.

Scope of the inquiry

The Health Committee is responsible for scrutinising the work of the Department of Health and its associated public bodies. Submissions should therefore address matters for which the Secretary of State for Health is responsible. However, comments are welcome on matters (such as, for example, the free movement of labour, or the single market) where the Secretary of State for Health may not have lead responsibility, but where the withdrawal negotiations led by other Ministers have important implications for health and/or social care in England.

The Committee will not be attempting to examine in detail the whole range of issues affected by UK withdrawal from the EU in the health and social care policy area. Rather, it will be attempting to identify the priority issues which the Government will need to address in the negotiations, and to hold the Government to account for what it achieves.

The Committee may choose to proceed by examining the issues through a “case study” approach, looking in detail during oral evidence sessions at a particular area—for example, a particular EU directive, such as the Clinical Trials Directive, an institution, such as the European Medicines Agency, or a policy area, such as the implications of the loss or restriction of free movement of people on health service staffing and/or access to healthcare—to consider the implications of that particular issue for health and social care. The Committee would welcome suggestions for the area or areas it might look at if it decides to take that approach.