Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with the German government on broadening access for other Europeans to its thalidomide fund.

The Government is sympathetic to the care needs of UK Thalidomide survivors, who continue to benefit from the £80 million grant, to be paid over 10 years, which was announced by the Department of Health in 2012.

The FCO has helped the Thalidomide Trust to make its own representations to the German Government regarding the possibility of payments for UK Thalidomide survivors. I met representatives of the Trust to discuss this on several occasions. I raised the issue with my German counterpart Michael Roth on 9 July and with the German Ambassador on 23 July, to whom I handed a letter from Simon Hoare MP to Chancellor Merkel on behalf of the House of Commons All Party Thalidomide Group. In response to these representations, the German government has confirmed that UK Thalidomide victims are eligible to apply for compensation from the Contergan Foundation.

I hope to continue discussions with the German government on how it might be made easier for UK survivors to apply for these funds when I visit Berlin later this month.