Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2015 to Question 224295, what progress his Department has made on securing a meeting between the Thalidomide Trust and the German authorities on financial compensation for British victims of thalidomide.

During his visit to Berlin in February, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Life Sciences at the Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Norfolk (Mr Freeman), raised the matter with Caren Marks, State Secretary in the Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth. They agreed that such a meeting was needed. We are currently in correspondence with the Ministry and the Trust to make the necessary arrangements and stand ready to give further support, if needed.