Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to hold further meetings with (a) people affected by in-utero exposure to sodium valproate and (b) other relevant stakeholders on the progress made in implementing the recommendations outlined in the Hughes Report.

The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report.

The Department will consider further meetings with the community and relevant stakeholders, when we have a substantive update to ensure that discussions can be productive, as part of our work on these important issues.