Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in the German government about (a) that government's role in the criminal process relating to thalidomide and (b) compensation for all those affected by that drug; and if he will make a statement.

I wrote to Manuela Schwesig, Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, on 14 October 2014, asking if she would meet with representatives of the Thalidomide Trust. The specific issues of the German Government’s role in the criminal process and compensation for those affected by the drug were not addressed but we understand that these are the matters that the Thalidomide Trust wishes to discuss with the German Government.