MHRA Consultation on Spare Adrenaline Nasal Sprays in Schools
If you are a parent, carer or teacher supporting a child with a severe allergy, this proposal will probably feel very immediate. On 19 October 2026, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, working UK-wide with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, opened a consultation on whether schools should be allowed to buy and keep spare adrenaline nasal sprays for emergencies. The idea is not to replace what schools already do. It is to give them another option when a child is having a serious allergic reaction and every minute matters.
According to the MHRA, around 8% of children and young people in the UK have a food allergy. Not every allergy leads to anaphylaxis, but some pupils are at risk of it. Anaphylaxis is a fast-moving, potentially life-threatening reaction, and the standard emergency treatment is adrenaline given straight away. This matters in schools because serious reactions do happen there. The MHRA says about 20% of serious allergic reactions to food take place in a school setting. That helps explain why this is not a small technical change in medicines law. It is a question about how prepared schools should be when a child suddenly becomes very unwell.
Schools are already allowed to keep spare adrenaline auto-injectors on site. The new proposal would let them hold spare adrenaline nasal sprays in a similar way. If the rules changed, a school could choose auto-injectors, nasal sprays or both, depending on what suits its pupils, staff training and emergency plans. The safeguards would stay in place. Emergency adrenaline from school supplies would only be for children already known to be at risk of anaphylaxis, and it would only be given by staff who have been trained. A child’s own prescribed medicine would still matter just as much as it does now. The school stock would remain a backup, not a replacement.
One reason this matters is that a nasal spray is needle-free. For some pupils and adults, that may sound less intimidating than an injector and easier to use quickly in a frightening moment. Allergy UK has welcomed that possibility, arguing that a device used through the nose could give families more confidence and could help schools respond promptly. But a new option only helps if people know exactly when and how to use it. That is why school leaders at the NAHT are stressing the need for clear guidance, safe systems and proper training. The National Allergy Strategy Group has made a similar point: newer treatments can be positive, but only if they do not leave staff confused in the middle of an emergency.
The consultation is also asking a wider policy question. Instead of writing the law around one specific type of self-administered adrenaline product, should the wording be broad enough to cover future authorised products too? In plain English, that would mean the rules could keep up with medical developments without needing a separate legal change every time a new format appears. That may sound dry, but it matters. When laws are too narrow, practical changes can take longer than they should. When laws are too loose, safety can suffer. The balance here is to make room for newer treatments while keeping the emergency rules clear and tightly controlled.
This consultation does not force schools to stock a particular brand, and it does not create an immediate new duty to buy nasal sprays. It asks whether schools should be allowed that choice and how the system would work in real life. That includes the everyday questions teachers and parents are likely to ask: who orders the medicine, where it is stored, who is trained, and what happens in the first minutes of an emergency. The timing matters too. New allergy-safety requirements for schools in England came into force in September 2026 as part of the first phase of Benedict’s Law. So this consultation arrives at a moment when school allergy policy is already changing, and when families are paying close attention to whether those changes make school feel safer in practice, not just on paper.
The consultation opened on 19 October 2026 and closes on 14 December 2026, giving people eight weeks to respond. The MHRA says it wants to hear from teachers, school staff, parents, carers, healthcare professionals, people at risk of anaphylaxis and anyone else with an interest in emergency treatment in schools. What this means for you is simple. This is not yet a rule change; it is the stage where public views can shape one. If you care about how schools prepare for allergic emergencies, this is one of those moments when policy is not happening somewhere far away. It is being written with input from the people who will have to live with it.