Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent bleach and other ineffective treatments advertised as miracle cures being used to treat autism.

The Department is aware of the development of sodium chlorite being marketed as Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) as a cure for autism. MMS is not a cure for autism.

The Food Standards Agency has issued advice previously, first in 2010, that MMS is not safe and should not be sold as a supplement. Since then it has been working with local authorities across the country to share knowledge, and to investigate and prevent the sale of MMS and similar products.