Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his German counterpart on compensation for Thalidomide victims from the German Government.

I have followed this issue closely and appreciate its importance. I have met representatives of the Thalidomide Trust on several occasions, most recently in November 2017. I subsequently raised Thalidomide with the then German Ambassador in January 2018.

The British Government has not been involved directly in talks with the German Government on compensation for British survivors of Thalidomide but wishes to assist where it can. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has helped the Trust make its own representations to the German Government and the Trust held meetings with the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs in September and December 2017. FCO officials remain in close contact with the Thalidomide Trust and will continue to pursue discussions with the German Government in an effort to make progress on securing successful compensation for those eligible.