Mr. Eugene Lennon:

There are already regulations on advertising of prescribed medicines. These come from an EU directive, Directive 2001/83/EC. This proposal goes further than that. It deals with gifts and transfers of money. The EU has some role, but if we were to look for a new directive, we would be talking about a number of years. The EU would carry out an impact assessment, make a proposal, negotiate over a number of years, and then give some time to implement. Taking the route of national legislation may be the quickest way of making some sort of progress on this.

Regarding cost, what we want ultimately is a register that is very transparent and very searchable. We do not want a situation where there are lots of individual entries. We would like to be able to look up an individual consultant or an individual entity and see all payments from all sources. Some work would be involved in building that. There may also be some work in policing any register or system we set up. We cannot presume that people are always fully honest in these matters, and it will be necessary to check the information that is provided. I am not saying that this would be a great cost, but we do need to make some estimate.

Where such registers are based varies between different countries. In some cases it is with the regulator of the particular profession. In other cases it can be with the medicines agency or some other entity in the country. I agree that the bulk of prescribing is done by medical practitioners, but as we have heard, there are other health professionals who may receive transfers of value. Would it be appropriate, then, to house the register in the Medical Council or somewhere more central?

There is also the question of transfers of value to health care organisations. Once our concern goes beyond doctors, the Medical Council may not be the best or most appropriate place. However, we agree very much with the principle of the Bill.