Peer mentions industrial strategy launch date in March

Conservative peer David Prior, parliamentary under-secretary of state for health, may have inadvertently given away the publication date of the government’s industrial strategy.

Speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on 7 December, Prior was asked when the government would respond to the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to give patients faster access to innovative healthcare, and was published on 24 October.

Prior told the committee, “I think we’re pretty much decided that we’re going to respond to the Accelerated Access Review within our industrial strategy for life sciences.” He added, “The industrial strategy is due to be published in March, around the time of the budget, and so we would expect to respond to the AAR within that timeframe.”