The government has rejected calls for legislation requiring industry to disclose its payments to the healthcare sector, five years after a major review said statutory rules should be introduced.
It will produce guidance for both the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries instead. This will set out which payments should be reported, as well as the format and frequency of the reporting.
Campaigners told HSJ it is “deeply disappointing” that the government decided against “sunshine legislation” to compel industry and the health service to declare payments to healthcare organisations and clinicians.
This was one of the recommendations from the 2020 Cumberlege Review, which investigated three women’s health scandals. It found transparency of payments in the healthcare sector was needed to guard against both real and perceived conflicts of interest. There was concern that such conflicts could be encouraging the use of unsafe devices and practices.
Date: 5 January