Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will support the implementation of the recommendations on epilepsy in the reports by the Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) and MBRRACE to help speed up the prevention of avoidable epilepsy deaths.

We support the Learning Disability Mortality Review’s recommendation that the safety of people with epilepsy should be prioritised. It is for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence to establish their guidelines and for the Care Quality Commission to agree how their inspections are conducted and what is considered.

In light of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths conducted by MBBRACE, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is reviewing all available data and arranging to meet with key patient support organisations and prescribers to explore how information provided to women can be improved. The conclusions of a safety review by the Commission of Human Medicines of the risks of epilepsy medicines in pregnancy have recently been published.