Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of providing social care for children diagnosed with fetal valproate spectrum disorder as a result of their mother being prescribed valproate in pregnancy in the last year for which data is available.

The Department does not hold data on the cost of providing social care to children diagnosed with fetal valproate spectrum disorder.

The Department for Education is responsible for the legal and policy frameworks within which children’s social care services operate. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provides funding to local authorities for children’s services.