Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Commission on Human Medicines review of available safety data for epilepsy medicines during pregnancy, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure research is conducted on the use of those medicines during pregnancy.

The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), funds a range of research in maternal and neonatal health focussing on the safety of maternity and neonatal services and the national maternity ambition to halve maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths and brain injury by 2025. The NIHR has funded three studies on anti-epilepsy medication use during pregnancy. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including anti-epilepsy medication use during pregnancy.