Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his German counterpart on compensation for thalidomide survivors in the last year; and if he will make a statement.

At a meeting with representatives of the Thalidomide Trust on 11 January, I agreed to raise with the German Ambassador the Trust's request for a further meeting with the German authorities. I wrote in these terms to the Ambassador on 4 February.