Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.99 of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, what progress has been made on the establishment of a registry for all women prescribed antiepileptic drugs who become pregnant.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is working with NHS Digital to develop a registry to monitor the use of valproate and compliance with the current regulatory position, and to monitor any children born to women on valproate. A report detailing the findings from the first stage of the registry, which linked data to provide information on all women currently prescribed valproate in England and any exposed pregnancies, is planned shortly. This will then be extended, including to women in the devolved regions, and further developed to include all women prescribed an antiepileptic drug.