Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for the Patient Safety Commissioner for Valproate producing the lifetime costings of caring for a disabled child affected by sodium valproate.

Our sympathies remain with all those affected by the side effects of sodium valproate.

The Department has asked the Patient Safety Commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, to undertake work on redress for people harmed by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The work is intended to focus on the views of those affected, improving the understanding of how many people have been affected and how, the case for redress and what form it could take. The work is expected to take around four months and the Patient Safety Commissioner will publish a report setting out the findings from this work. Once finalised, Ministers will consider the report’s findings before deciding how to proceed on this matter.