Speeches by Fenton-Glynn.

“I am going to talk a bit about the online advertising world. Direct to consumer drug adverts are banned, but social media is becoming a bit of a wild west, isn’t it? Andy, do you think you have the laws and resources you need to tackle the pharmacies and pharmaceuticals being sold on social media?”

“Okay, you get the posts removed—”

“Yes.”

“That is great. The posts are usually advertising a specific pharmacy. What do you do to those pharmacies?”

“Your coalition represents what you are referring to as the responsible pharmacists, which I assume means that they follow both the letter and the spirit of the various regulators’ guidance. Is that right?”

“My issue is that a pharmacy is buying the service of an advertising agency that is buying the service of an influencer who is then putting out posts that are at least unethical and, in many cases, go against your guidance. The book that I referenced talks about how discount codes are offered, how people are offered fin…”

“Have you taken any cases against a pharmaceutical company that you think is—”

“I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, which my Committee colleagues are used to. I went through Ogilvy’s website, and I am just using it as an example. It says, “TikTok is winning the battle for attention, which is the ultimate precursor to persuasion. This high attention span, combined with a personalised algorithm, mak…”

“Do you think that the pharmaceutical companies—we are talking Lilly and so forth, the big producers—should have an obligation not to sell their drugs through pharmacies that clearly seem to break the ASA rules and your rules about direct to consumer advertising?”

“I was a bit confused because the Advertising Standards Authority does not allow direct to customer advertisement of prescription medication; is that correct?”

“One assumes they are legal sellers, but they are engaged in what seems to be unethical activity.”

“I thank the Minister for going further in making these transcripts available. Will she let us know what the next steps in that process will be? How quickly will we see real movement to allow people to have access to their sentencing remarks?”

“Do you think we need more legislation?”

“You talked about it being a developing area. Do you think that the legislation is adequate for this developing area?”

“When I google weight loss drugs, one of the sponsored results is the pharmacy Numan, which is one of your coalition, and it advertises on the basis of a discount for the initial few months that people do it. The headline, when you google, is, “Now £55, was £139. Lose weight from £55 a month.” Do you think that is follo…”

“You would wait for the ASA to flag it rather than having concerns about what appears to be direct to customer advertisement when you google weight loss drugs?”

“T2. Manufacturers have been grappling with energy costs long before the current Iran conflict, hitting Calder Valley firms. Siddall & Hilton, which makes fences, is seeing costs four times higher than European competitors, and finishing company H&C Whitehead has seen its energy bills double to £22,000 a month. …”

“We have had reports where vaccines were key recommendations as well, and where they were key issues that we raised. For example, the report on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life particularly raised the issue of falling vaccination rates.”

“I think this is an issue that we need real leadership on. As parliamentarians from the Back Benches, we have a chance to show some leadership by having this debate.”

“May I commend our current position of not being drawn further into the US and Israeli operation in Iran? Can the Secretary of State confirm that we will continue to avoid any escalation, and will act only in ways that are in defence of British personnel and interests?”