Oral Hormone Pregnancy Tests

Guto Bebb Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)]

It is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi). I pay tribute to her for her work on the all-party group on oral hormone pregnancy tests, and for securing this debate. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for making time to debate such an issue in the Chamber. Once again, the Committee has highlighted the House’s ability to work on a cross-party basis. I was particularly impressed by the fact that the hon. Lady’s speech was non-partisan in condemning all previous Governments, rather than just one Government; that has been much appreciated.

I have come to this debate late in the day, but after a constituent of mine informed me about the impact of the issue on her life and her family, I was lucky enough to be briefed by the campaign. The campaign should be congratulated on the work that it has done in talking to Back-Bench MPs to ensure that we are willing to speak on the issue.

It is important to point out that my constituent Mrs Margaret Roberts has provided a fantastic example of why lobbying your MP does make a difference. To be perfectly frank, if it had not been for her persistence and the fact that she came forward to explain the impact of what happened to her family, I might not have spoken in this debate. People complain that MPs are too easily lobbied, but I argue that when constituents lobby their MP, it is often an essential part of our democratic process. I am very pleased that Mrs Roberts made the effort to come to talk to me.

Having read Mrs Roberts’s testimony and listened to her talk about her experiences, it is difficult not to be moved. As a parent, I found it difficult not to be moved when I heard about the joy, grief and guilt she has felt because of the impact of the drug on her son Garry. It is worth touching on such issues because, ultimately, we need to try to shine a light on what actually happened. Nothing can change the impact of what has been done, but it is important to recognise that people want to understand exactly what happened.

In speaking to Mrs Roberts about her son Garry, it was very apparent that he brought immense joy to the family. Despite the fact that he had severe disabilities from birth, he battled on for 37 years. He was born in 1964, but passed away in 2001. What is remarkable in Mrs Roberts’s testimony is that somebody with such significant disabilities should live such a fulfilling life. Wherever he went, he clearly touched the lives of other people, not least those of his three siblings and his parents, and he had a significant impact on his carers, whether they were care in the community support staff or hospital staff. It was difficult to listen to all her testimony without feeling moved by the impact that somebody with such severe disabilities can have on others for the greater good.

What also came through was the grief of a family who expected their first-born to be healthy, but who knew within a few hours that something was wrong. I could not help but feel very affected by that. As a father who had twin boys born at 30 weeks, I know what it feels like to see one’s children taken away to be given special care. I am lucky that they came back and that they are healthy and fit.

It was hard to hear the testimony of somebody who knew that something was wrong for months and years. They have never been given a full explanation of what exactly did occur. The joy that Garry brought to their lives is clear from Mrs Roberts’s testimony, but so is the grief of knowing that they were the parents of somebody who suffered the constant visits to the hospital and the constant need to talk to the medical establishment. Throughout all that, no explanation was given of the cause of the significant health problems that he faced.

Finally, I want to touch on the issue of guilt. That is the reason why this debate is so important to people such as Mrs Roberts. She went on to have three healthy children, so she constantly asks herself whether her decision to take the tablets back in 1964 was the cause of the suffering of her son Garry. Does she need to blame herself or was it beyond her control? She needs an explanation of exactly what happened. That is why this debate is important.

We have an obligation to highlight the information that is available to Government, and to ensure that it has been looked at carefully and taken into account. We must also have the ability to look at that information afresh to see whether mistakes were made, where they were made, why they were made and how we can avoid them in future. That is the key point that comes across from the campaign group. Of course they want answers, but they want answers to ensure that such a situation does not happen in the future.

Having spoken about the issues that my constituent and her son have faced, I think it is important to associate myself with the cause made by the hon. Member for Bolton South East. We need to ask why the evidence that was collated was not acted on at an earlier date. We have heard testimony that the authorities in the United Kingdom were aware of the issues before the authorities in other countries, yet it appears that other countries acted to ban the substance before the United Kingdom. We need to know why that was.

Now that so much information has come to light from documents that have been released under the 30-year rule, why can we not instigate an inquiry with a panel of experts to evaluate what went wrong and how it can be rectified for the future? It would not have to be a far-reaching inquiry. Most important, an expert panel of the nature envisaged by the hon. Member for Bolton South East and the all-party parliamentary group would be able to tell people whether they were in any way responsible for what happened. I suspect the answer is that they were clearly not, but if that information was provided by reputable experts who had looked at the information afresh, it would give people like Mrs Roberts a degree of closure. People who are suffering the effects of what they believe to have been the ill-advised use of the hormones would also be able to understand what happened and why they have suffered.

I call on the Government to make good the mistakes of previous Administrations by taking seriously and giving due consideration to the simple request that an expert panel be put together. I am hopeful that the Minister will say that the Government will, in the interests of transparency and honesty, appoint such a committee.