Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of reports by disability campaigners that the German government was complicit in preventing British victims of thalidomide from securing compensation from Grünenthal; and if he will make representations to his German counterpart on that matter.

No assessment has been made of the German Government's role in relation to British Thalidomide survivors and the issue of compensation from the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal.

I met with the Thalidomide Trust on 23 June 2014. We are considering further what representations we might make in the light of this meeting. A further meeting between the Thalidomide Trust and the Minister for Europe is due to take place on 3 September.