Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of providing social care for children diagnosed with fetal anti-convulsant syndrome as a result of the mother being prescribed with sodium valproate during pregnancy.

Information on the number of adults and children diagnosed with fetal anti-convulsant syndrome in the United Kingdom due to pre-natal sodium valproate exposure is not collected centrally. Fetal anti-convulsant syndrome is a non-drug specific condition that relates to abnormalities in children exposed to any anticonvulsant, not just sodium valproate, during pregnancy.

The Department does not collect data about local authorities' expenditure specifically on social care provision for children diagnosed with foetal anti-convulsant syndrome, or on the provision of special education needs or disability support for such children, and no estimate has been made by the Department of these costs.