Guli Francis-Dehqani became the Bishop of Chelmsford in March 2021. She was included in the House of Lords a few months later in November 2021 and was the first Bishop to respond to the King Charles Speech on the 18th July, seen here. Since then, Guli has submitted a written question about “Drugs: Packaging”, published on 6th August which Gillian Merron the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health responded. The question and response are below:

Bishop of Chelmsford: To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to encourage sustainable packaging for all medication distributed by the NHS, including sustainable alternatives to plastic blister packs for pills.

Gillian Merron: NHS England is working collaboratively with a range of partners including the Department, the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and others to support achievement of net zero ambitions for the National Health Service, as summarised in the Delivering a net zero NHS report published in October 2020. Action on packaging, alongside a wide range of other activities, will support achievement of these ambitions, often also improving efficiency and reducing cost.

NHS England is supporting specific initiatives such as Circularity in Primary Pharmaceutical Packaging, a not-for-profit collaborative which aims, amongst other ambitions, to improve the circularity of blister packs. The MHRA provides regulatory and scientific advice to companies improving the environmental sustainability of their products, and can assist with changes to packaging materials.

Patient safety will always be our primary objective, with increased environmental sustainability in pharmaceutical packaging playing an important part in mitigating the long-term impacts of climate change on our patients.