Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to audit the use of surgical mesh for (a) pelvic organ prolapse and (b) stress urinary incontinence; and if he will make a statement.

There has been extensive work completed by the NHS England Mesh Working Group to investigate the concerns raised in relation to surgical meshes which included exploring if a one-off information gathering exercise on patient outcomes should be conducted. They concluded that this would not be the best allocation of resources to respond to this issue.

Following further discussion with the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) and members of the Surgical Mesh All Party Parliamentary Group on 14 November, NHS England and the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency are looking again at this issue and will advise ministers accordingly.