Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) women of child bearing age, (b) girls, (c) boys and (d) men are receiving prescriptions for sodium valproate as of 11 September 2025.

Prescription data is collected by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).

The NHSBSA bases prescription data on processed prescription data for each three-month period. This is a commonly used method for presenting prescription data for prescriptions given for chronic conditions that can last longer than one month.

The latest available prescription data is from the period between April and June 2025.

The following information is extracted from the NHSBSA ePACT2 database, using British National Formulary chemical substance sodium valproate (0408010W0) and valproic acid (0402030Q0, 040801020), prescribed in England. The following numbers of patients were prescribed one or more item between April 2025 and June 2025:

(a) 16,400 females aged 18-54

(b) 2,400 females aged 0-17

(c) 6,000 males aged 0-17

(d) 91,800 males aged 18 or over