Professor Tamara Hervey:

Virtually every sector of the health policy community we have talked to would like regulatory alignment. They ask us how can we persuade the UK Government and whether they can offer templates to the Government to achieve regulatory alignment. Basically, they want cherry-picking. They want health to be treated in a special way, but every sector, including transport, aviation and farming, wants that. Part of my job has been to explain to them that the European Union works in a particular way and to explain the European Union non-negotiable parameters, including the point the UK cannot cherry-pick. That is one of them.

There are some tiny areas where the UK health policy committee would like to diverge. One is working time. Some would like to be able to go back to the good old days - they were really not very good - when junior doctors worked long hours that are now unlawful under EU law. At least one of the royal colleges is formally in favour of that, but these are tiny areas. In general, what is desired is regulatory alignment.

We have done some work with a large charity in the UK that does biomedical research. Those involved absolutely want regulatory alignment in everything, not only in product standards but in terms of data, clinical trial processes and all these things. This is because they are embedded in research projects that go all the way across the EU. UK biomedical scientists are part of that. The desire at that level in British society is for regulatory alignment. Actually, it is even for a remain outcome but no one can actually say that they are for remain now. It has become almost impossible politically, especially if an organisation is a charity. A charity really cannot position itself anywhere; it cannot be for leave or remain.

The question is a legal question. It is about how much collaboration, inter-agency interaction and recognition and sharing of resources the European Union can tolerate within its notion of the integrity of the Internal Market. The hope in the UK is that the EU can tolerate a good deal of what others might call cherry-picking. Much of this will be hidden. Much will be at an agency level and at a highly granular level. There might be different settlements in different specific aspects of health policy. All of that will take a long time to arrange. I do not believe the European Union can tolerate a simple roll-over, legally speaking. For instance, the European Union has already excluded the UK from chairing committees in the European Medicines Agency. They are moving out the UK chairpersons. The UK is being moved out from leading groups investigating rare diseases. All of those positions that were held by UK scientists or experts are being given to experts in other EU member states.